Children's Evaluations of Gender-Stereotypic Household Activities in the Family Context

Research Findings: The goal of this study was to analyze children's (N = 120) evaluations about parental decisions regarding gender-stereotypic household family activities. Children at 5, 8, and 10 years of age were individually interviewed. Contrary to prevailing findings, the majority of children used stereotypic expectations and social-conventional justifications to explain parental exclusion decisions; this pattern was more pronounced for male-stereotypic than female-stereotypic activities. Overall, children's social judgments revealed age-related increases in making stereotypic choices. Boys were more likely than girls to condone stereotypic expectations regarding father–son activities than mother–daughter activities. Practice or Policy: The results are discussed in terms of (a) social–cognitive reasoning about family decision making in the home and (b) gender-stereotypic expectations between parents and children in the home context.     

关于中学生家长对中学生性别角色期望的调查

为了解中学生家长对中学生未来性别角色发展的期望,本研究采用性别角色期望调查表调查了1 591名中学生家长,结果发现：中学阶段,男生家长对男生的性别角色期望更趋近于男性化,女生家长对女生的性别角色期望更趋近于双性化。男生家长期望男生在下列特质中高于女生：有幽默感、喜欢运动、胆大、不屈不挠、侠义心肠、豪放、好动、奔放、文质彬彬;女生家长期望女生在下列特质中高于男生：快乐、善良、乐观的、自立、开朗、爱整洁、和气、心细、洁身自好、纯真、文雅、温顺、温柔、文静、贤淑。     

Challenging Gender Stereotypes: Resistance and Exclusion

The likelihood of resisting gender‐stereotypic peer group norms, along with expectations about personal resistance, was investigated in 9‐ to 10‐year‐olds and 13‐ to 14‐year‐olds (N = 292). Participants were told about a stereotype conforming group (boys playing football; girls doing ballet) and a stereotype nonconforming group (boys doing ballet; girls playing football). Contrary to expectations from gender‐stereotyping research, participants stated that they would personally resist gender‐stereotypic norms, and more so than they would expect their peers to resist. However, expecting peers to resist declined with age. Participants expected that exclusion from the group was a consequence for challenging the peer group, and understood the asymmetrical status of gender stereotypes with an expectation that it would be more difficult for boys to challenge stereotypes than for girls.     

Parental expectations of children’s higher education participation in Australia

The role of parental expectations in determining children's higher education participation is important in understanding both participation and potential policy responses. Using a nationally representative longitudinal survey of Australian households, providing repeat observations on expectations for individual children, this study extends the literature in several respects. First, it examines the adaptation of parental expectations over a 4-year time frame. Second, it looks at how parental expectations for school children are associated with actual higher education outcomes in the future. Third, the longitudinal aspect of the dataset permits more robust analyses of factors that shape parental expectations. The findings indicate that parental expectations of their children's attendance at university are generally stable across time. Perceptions of children's academic achievement at school are shown to be the key influence in shaping parents' expectations, and behavioural issues at school adversely affect expectations. Australian parents from non-English-speaking backgrounds were more likely to form positive expectations of university participation by their children, consistent with studies from other countries. A more nuanced picture of the formation of expectations for sole-parent mothers is also presented. Positive effects of parental education and children's enrolment in a private school on parents' expectations, over and above any effect on school achievement, highlight these socioeconomic factors as potential causal channels for the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic outcomes.     

Will my child ever go to a university? The link between school segregation practices and Norwegian parents’ expectations for their physically disabled child

How parents perceive their children's educational prospects can reveal a great deal about how their children will progress in the educational system. The paper examines the consequences of variations in inclusive education practices by investigating determinants of parents’ educational expectations for their child. All parents included in the study had children with physical disabilities in primary school (mainly cerebral palsy and spina bifida). The empirical material includes results from a survey (Net sample = 491), in combination with information merged from a range of official registers. The results showed that the more the child is segregated from ordinary classroom education, the lower parental expectations are for their children's educational attainments. Other factors also significantly influencing parents’ educational expectations include how parents’ view their child's school performance, as well as various measures of the severity of the child's physical disability. However, these secondary factors could not account for the empirically strong association between segregation practices and parental expectations. Parental expectations were also significantly related to parental income and education. The findings indicate that the expectations of parents with higher income and education are less affected by school segregation practices.     

From Parental Involvement to Children's Mathematical Performance: The Role of Mathematics Anxiety

This study examined whether children's mathematics anxiety serves as an underlying pathway between parental involvement and children's mathematics achievement. Participants included 78 low-income, ethnic minority parents and their children residing in a large urban center in the northeastern United States. Parents completed a short survey tapping several domains of parental involvement, and children were assessed on mathematics anxiety, whole number arithmetic, word problems, and algebraic reasoning. Research Findings: The results indicated that parents influence children's mathematics achievement by reducing mathematics anxiety, particularly for more difficult kinds of mathematics. Specifically, the mediation analyses demonstrated that parental home support and expectations influenced children's performance on word problems and algebraic reasoning by reducing children's mathematics anxiety. Mathematics anxiety did not mediate the relationship between home support and expectations and whole number arithmetic. Practice or Policy: Policies and programs targeting parental involvement in mathematics should focus on home-based practices that do not require technical mathematical skills. Parents should receive training, resources, and support on culturally appropriate ways to create home learning environments that foster high expectations for children's success in mathematics.     

On the Relations Between Parents' Ideals and Children's Autonomy

In this article Doret J. de Ruyter and Anders Schinkel argue that parents' ideals can enhance children's autonomy, but that they may also have a detrimental effect on the development of children's autonomy. After describing the concept of ideals and elucidating a systems theoretical conception of autonomy, de Ruyter and Schinkel explore the ways in which the ideals of parents may play a role in the development of their children's autonomy. They show that abstract and complex ideals of parents (be it ideals for their children, ideals with regard to their parenthood, or their personal ideals) are most likely to enhance their children's autonomy. They also explain that an authoritative parenting style is most conducive to autonomy, although whether or not it does benefit children's autonomy also depends on the types of ideals pursued by parents.     

Visions for literacy: parents’ aspirations for reading in children with Down syndrome

Although children with Down syndrome (DS) can learn to read, few studies have explored parental perspectives on the reading development of this group of children. This article, written by Leila Ricci and Anna Osipova, from California State University, explores visions and expectations regarding reading held by parents of children with Down syndrome in the US. Parents of 50 children with DS (aged three to 13 years) completed a survey about their children's interest in reading and responded to open‐ended questions inquiring about their views on their children's reading development. A majority of parents in this study described their children's positive attitude toward reading, stated their reading‐related goals for their children, defined their children's relative strengths in reading, and shared strategies used in the home to promote literacy in this population. Parents pay close attention to and have high expectations for their children's reading achievement, and thereby would benefit from partnerships with informed educators willing and capable of teaching reading to children with DS.     

The Closing of the Gender Gap in Schooling: The case of Thailand

The results from the 1990 national census indicate that the long standing gender gap in educational attainment favouring boys over girls has closed in Thailand at all levels. This occurred as responses to generalized questions on attitudes about schooling for boys and girls on nationally representative surveys are showing a substantial reduction in the preference for educating sons more than daughters, although some preference for sons persists. Qualitative data from focus group discussions in rural areas reveal that parental views on gender and schooling are complex and do not operate uniformly to favour one sex over the other. Moreover, the changing socioeconomic context of schooling decisions in Thailand are likely to encourage parents to favour girls at least as much as boys in education. While gender inequality in schooling is no longer important, the socioeconomic level continues to influence starkly Thai children's chances for higher levels of education.     

A cross-cultural study of parents' academic standards and educational aspirations for their children

The present study was an investigation of Asian Australian and Anglo-Celtic Australian parents' educational expectations of, and aspirations for, their children. It was predicted that parents from Asian backgrounds would have higher academic standards and higher aspirations for their children's education, compared with Anglo-Celtic Australian parents. These hypotheses were largely supported by a survey of 239 Australian parents from Chinese, Vietnamese and Anglo-Celtic cultural backgrounds. There was evidence of a preference for university education among the Chinese and Vietnamese parents, while Anglo-Celtic Australian parents from lower socioeconomic backgrounds were more likely to prefer their children to attend TAFE or complete an apprenticeship. The results are discussed in terms of the role of parental factors in children's academic achievements.     

‘Troublesome boys’ and ‘compliant girls’: gender identity and perceptions of achievement and underachievement

Working within a methodological framework that identified four focus groups, high‐achieving boys and girls and underachieving boys and girls, this article presents teachers' perceptions of how gender identity is seen to influence achievement levels. Beliefs about gender identity informed the teachers' perceptions in relation to each of the four focus groups, whereby the underachieving boy and the high‐achieving girl were seen to conform to gender expectations; the high‐achieving boys were seen to challenge gender norms; and the underachieving girl emerges as largely overlooked. The perceived characteristics of the high‐achieving girl are presented as describing all girls. There appears to be a tendency to associate boys with underachievement and girls with high achievement.     

Context of academic achievement: lessons from Hong Kong

Vygotsky speculated that parents play an important role in the intellectual development of their children, and that this role includes the transfer of expectations related to their children's academic achievement. Consequently, different parents can produce different contexts of academic achievement for their children. The participants were 215 Primary 5 and 6 students from four primary schools in Hong Kong, and their parents. Students were administered a test of working memory and their academic achievement was indicated by their school‐assessed mathematics and language achievement scores. Parents reported their expectations of their children's academic achievement, the extent of their home and school involvement, and their educational and income levels. Correlational and sequential regression analyses showed that different schools yielded different contexts of academic achievement. The results support the hypothesis that parents, and especially parental expectations, play an important role in children's academic achievement, and that within Hong Kong different schools can be characterised by different contexts of achievement.     

The influence of children's gender and age on children's use of digital media at home

This study is the first to systematically investigate the influence of child gender and age, on parents’ perceptions of UK children's digital media use at home. It provides an in‐depth exploration of how children's age and gender influence the balance between children's use of digital and non‐digital media at home. The data draw on 709 parents’ responses to an open‐ended question asked in the context of a national survey investigating the digital reading habits of children, conducted in 2015. Parents’ responses were analysed using content and thematic analysis, which yielded eight main categories, collapsed into three major themes: control, child's healthy development and diversity of experiences. Quantitative analyses evidenced that more parents of boys were concerned about the health implications of their children's digital media use and this was a concern especially for parents of the youngest (0–2‐year‐old) children. More parents of 6–8‐year olds cited the appeal of technology as the main reason for the perceived imbalance in their children's engagement with digital media. The study provides a more secure understanding of the factors that influence parental perceptions of their children's digital media use at home, which has implications for policy‐makers, digital designers and early years professionals.     

Genetic Enhancement as Care or as Domination? The Ethics of Asymmetrical Relationships in the Upbringing of Children

Should a society oriented towards justice provide parents with the possibility of enhancing their children's genes? The opposing arguments of authors in the Rawls School and of the theorist of communicative action, Jürgen Habermas, are analysed in terms of their key concepts. Their positions are then assessed from the point of view of the principles of the pedagogical task to educate towards autonomy under conditions of asymmetry. They each call for respect both of children's difference and of their dependence, and they ask for parents to moderate their expectations. In the light of this, Habermas's critique of genetic intervention, based on a Kantian understanding of autonomy as the capacity to be moral, on Kierkegaard's concept of being able to be oneself, and on respect for finitude, is here to be justified.     

How Do Young Children Misbehave in the Grocery Store and in the School? The Preschoolers' Perspective

This research assessed young children's perceptions about what misconduct behaviors peers are likely to commit across two contexts, the school and the grocery store. In addition, participants heard one of two versions in which the protagonist was either a boy or a girl. The participants were 70 preschool children (40 males and 30 females) and ranged in age from 36 to 77 months (M = 57 months). The results showed that a total of 242 non-repetitive behaviors were generated. Most of the behaviors generated either concerned acts having negative consequences to others (i.e., moral transgressions) or violations of social norms (i.e., conventional transgressions). The results also showed that children generated more moral than conventional misbehaviors. Moral acts were expected to occur more often in the school context than in grocery context, whereas social conventional misbehaviors were expected to occur in both contexts. Children described three specific types of moral misbehaviors: physical harm, property violations, and interpersonal violations. Furthermore, children's expectations of peers' misbehaviors were a function of the gender of the character committing the misdeed as well as the story context.     

Early Nonparental Care and Social Behavior in Elementary School: Support for a Social Group Adaptation Hypothesis

This study examined the contribution of nonparental child‐care services received during the preschool years to the development of social behavior between kindergarten and the end of elementary school with a birth cohort from Québec, Canada (N = 1,544). Mothers reported on the use of child‐care services, while elementary school teachers rated children's shyness, social withdrawal, prosociality, opposition, and aggression. Children who received nonparental child‐care services were less shy, less socially withdrawn, more oppositional, and more aggressive at school entry (age 6 years). However, these differences disappeared during elementary school as children who received exclusive parental care caught up with those who received nonparental care services. This “catch‐up” effect from the perspective of children's adaptation to the social group is discussed.     

The Relation between the Frequency and the Universality of Teaching Activities

ABSTRACT

The author empirically tests the conceptual model of academic socialization, which suggests that parental cognitions about schooling influence parenting practices and child outcomes during the transition to school (Taylor, Clayton, &; Rowley, 2004). More specifically, the author examines associations among parents’ conceptions of school readiness, transition practices, and children's academic achievement in reading and mathematics from kindergarten through Grade 1 using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (N = 12,622). A latent growth curve model was estimated, and results show that parents’ school readiness beliefs were positively associated with children's beginning achievement and growth. Parents’ transition practices were positively associated with children's achievement at the onset of kindergarten. Parents’ beliefs also positively predicted their use of transition practices. The analysis largely confirmed the conceptual model of academic socialization. Furthermore, findings suggest that early interventions seeking to change parenting practices should consider parents’ school readiness beliefs and expectations.     

Parental autonomy support,community feeling and student expectations as contributors to later achievement among adolescents

This longitudinal study examined the relationships among parental autonomy support, student intrinsic life goals (i.e. community feeling), student expectations for long-term educational attainment and later academic performance (measured by GPA) in 227 students in an ethnically and racially diverse high school. Hypotheses were tested with structural equation models, which included gender, parent education and prior GPA as control variables. As self-determination theory suggests, parental autonomy support was indirectly and positively related to academic performance via intrinsic life goals. Intrinsic life goals and student expectations were moderately and positively related and both contributed to growth in academic performance, which suggests that self-determination theory and expectancy-value theory provide additive insight in predicting educational achievement. Fifty per cent of the variance in intrinsic life goals was explained by parental autonomy support and 77% of the variance in later GPA was explained collectively by variables in the study. The way in which student expectations and intrinsic life goals work in concert to promote achievement should be examined in future intervention studies. The significant indirect effect of parental autonomy support on GPA via intrinsic life goals and student expectations suggests that students will benefit from parents fostering intrinsic life goals through autonomy supportive communication.