The role of parents' and teachers' beliefs in children's self-concept development

Abstract

This study examined to what extent parents' and teachers' beliefs about children's abilities predict children's self-concept of math and reading ability development during the first grade, and whether these predictions depend on the child's gender and level of performance. One hundred fifty-two children and their parents and teachers were followed across first grade. The results showed, first, that the associations between teachers' beliefs and children's subsequent self-concept of ability depended on the level of the children's performance. Among high-performers, the higher the teachers' beliefs about their students' abilities in reading or in math, the higher the subsequent level of self-concept of ability. Among low-performers no association was found between teachers' beliefs and students' selfconcept of ability in either reading or math. Second, mothers' and fathers' beliefs were not predictive of children's self-concept of math and reading ability during first grade. Overall, these results suggest that during the first grade it is teachers' rather than parents' beliefs, that play a role in children's selfconcept of ability. In teacher education, emphasis should therefore be placed on the importance of supporting children's developing self-concept as well as teaching new academic skills.

The Development of Adolescents’ Self-Concept of Ability Through Grades 7-9 and the Role of Parental Beliefs

“…However, the differential role that parental beliefs have on student self-concept, depending on the student's level of performance, has not to our knowledge been investigated among older children like secondary school students. Finding out differences in the associations between parental beliefs and students' self-concept of ability depending on students' level of performance might have important implications for interventions.One further limitation of earlier research is that the majority of studies on the role of parental beliefs have focused on the role of mothers (for exceptions, see Frome & Eccles, 1998;Pesu et al, 2016), to the relative neglect of the role of fathers' beliefs. However, it might be that mothers and fathers play a different role in their children's self-concept development (Frome & Eccles, 1998; MacGrath & Repetti, 2000;Maccoby, 1998).…”

“…As the first hypothesis, we hypothesized that the associations of mothers' beliefs with adolescents' selfconcept of ability are stronger among girls than among boys whereas the associations of fathers' beliefs with adolescents' self-concept of ability are stronger among boys than among girls, as suggested by the socialization model (Maccoby, 1998). As the second hypothesis, we hypothesized that gender does not play a role in the connections between mothers'/fathers' beliefs and self-concept of ability because previous studies have not found these kinds of gender differences (Pesu at al., 2016;Simpkins et al, 2012).! Based one previous results by Pesu et al (2016), we also hypothesized that the role of mothers'/fathers' beliefs in self-concept of ability is stronger among high-than low-performing students.…”

“…Furthermore, testing the moderating effect of gender is important because it may have important implications for interventions (Simpkins et al, 2012): if parental beliefs have different impact on boys and girls self-concept of ability, the interventions should take this into consideration when thinking the best ways to support girls and boys. Whether the effect of parental beliefs about their children's abilities on children's self-concept development is affected by the child's gender is thus far, however, underexplored.Alongside gender it has been recently suggested that the child's level of performance may also impact the association between adults' beliefs and students' self-concept of ability (Pesu et al, 2016). In the study by Pesu et al (2016), the impact of teachers' beliefs on first-grade students' self-concept of…”

“…mathematics and reading ability was different depending on the level of student's performance: among highperforming students, teachers' beliefs had a positive impact on students' self-concept of mathematics and reading ability, whereas among low-performing students, teachers' beliefs did not have this positive impact. Pesu et al (2016) suggested that one explanation for this differential impact of teacher beliefs is that highperforming children are more prone to be affected by adults' beliefs than low-performing children as (owing to their cognitive abilities) they are able to make more accurate interpretations of adults' feedback and their own performance. Also, Bohlmann and Weinstein (2013) argued that children's cognitive reasoning skills affect the way they perceive, interpret, and attribute meaning to teachers' actions.…”

The Development of Adolescents’ Self-Concept of Ability Through Grades 7-9 and the Role of Parental Beliefs

“…In the study by Pesu et al (2016), the impact of teachers' beliefs on first-grade students' self-concept of…”