Influence of Parents' Self-Feelings and Expectations on Children's Academic Performance

The authors examined the degree to which parents' negative self-feelings affect the relationship between their educational attainment and the educational expectations they have for their adolescent children, as perceived by their children. In turn, they investigated the degree to which parents' negative self-feelings affect the relationship between their educational expectations for their adolescent children and the current academic achievement of those children. Results provide preliminary indications that parents' expectations for their children and the transmission of those expectations may be modified by how parents feel about themselves. Those modifying effects are explained in terms of both parents' and students' motivations and behaviors.