Poster #6 - Differing effects of teacher and mother inaccurate beliefs: Evidence from multiple longitudinal datasets

• In Event: 2-001 - Poster Session 1 during Breakfast

Abstract

Research suggests that teachers’ expectations create self-fulfilling prophecies, which is when one person’s inaccurate perceptions about a second person leads the second person to act in ways that are similar to the first person’s false beliefs (Merton, 1948). In their classic 1968 study, Pygmalion in the Classroom, Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) demonstrated that schoolchildren’s intellectual development can be shaped by teachers’ expectations. The relation between a teacher’s inaccurate expectations and a student’s academic achievement has been replicated using both experimental and naturalistic methods (Jussim & Eccles, 1995; Jussim, etal., 1996; Rosenthal, 1994; Sorhagen, 2013; Weinstein, 2002).

Initial interest in the accuracy of parents’ beliefs, on the other hand, stemmed from interest in Piaget’s (1929) construct of equilibrium and the relative importance of a ‘match’ between a child’s ability and environmental challenges in the home. Hunt and Paraskevopoulos (1980) found that mothers who overestimated child performance tended to have children who performed poorly on standardized tests of intelligence. Maternal underestimation was not related to child performance. Many researchers since have linked parent under- and overestimation to poor child outcomes (Colter & Shoemaker, 1969; Delgado-Hachet, 1984; Miller & Turnbull, 1986; Miller, et al., 1991), but a few have presented evidence of self-fulfilling prophecies (Pomerantz & Dong, 2006; Scherr, et al., 2011).

The present study analyzed data from the NICHD SECCYD and the ECLS-K to explore effects of teachers’ and mothers’ inaccurate perceptions of third grade children’s academic abilities. Inaccurate Perceptions of Abilities (IPA) scores were computed by regressing the adult perceptions of a child’s ability on to the child’s standardized abilities. A negative score reflects underestimation, and a positive one reflects overestimation. The closer an IPA score is to zero, the smaller the discrepancy between perceptions and actual performance.

Preliminary analyses considered predictors of IPA scores (see Table 1). In both datasets IPA scores were higher for students with high prior abilities, female students and students with high social skills.

Main analyses predicted fifth grade achievement from teacher and mother IPA scores, after controlling for children’s prior abilities in first grade and demographic characteristics (see Table 2). For teachers, misperceptions of math ability led to self-fulfilling prophecies. When mothers’ misperceptions were entered into the model, on the other hand, the quadratic term was a significant and negative predictor of later achievement, suggesting accurate perceptions were associated with higher achievement, compared to under or overestimation of abilities.

Author

• Nicole Sorhagen, Millersville University
  Presenting Author