Poster #23 - Parents' Educational Expectations and Parent-Child Communication in Children's Science Achievement

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

Abstract

The study utilized a national representative data of Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY) to explore the direct and indirect associations between parents' educational expectations, parent-child communication and seventh graders' (N=3,116) science achievement. Children's perceived academic competence and academic effort served as mediating mechanisms. Guided by social cognitive theory and attribution theory, the study identified direct associations as well as three mediating pathways by structural equation modeling analyses. First, parents' educational expectations showed direct and indirect associations with children's science achievement whereas parent-child communication only indicated indirect associations, highlighting the strong influential role of parents’ educational expectations. Second, the three indirect association pathways revealed that (1) parents’ educational expectation and parent-child communication indirectly associated with children’s science achievement through children’s perceived academic competence, (2) parents’ educational expectations and parent-child communication indirectly associated with children’s science achievement through children’s academic effort, (3) parents’ educational expectations and parent-child communication indirectly associated with children’s perceived academic competence, which in turn, was associated with academic effort, and subsequently academic effort was associated with children’s science achievement. In examing the indirect associations, the study stressed that parents’ educational expectations and parent-child communication are crucial parental involvement practices where parents may help children to set an education goal for them to achieve. Influenced by their parents’ educational expectations and parent-child communication, children may attribute their science achievement either to their academic competence or academic effort, or both academic competence and academic effort. Among those who believe academic competence is the key to science achievement, the study observed that children with higher perceived competence have greater science achievement. For those who believe academic effort is the key to science achievement, they are more likely to increase their effort level to accomplish greater science achievement. Those who believe academic competence and academic effort both contribute to science achievement are more likely to take the challenge and persist in effort in order to accomplish higher science achievement.

Authors

• YUE ZHANG, Syracuse University
  Presenting Author

• Eunjoo Jung, Syracuse University