Running head: PARENT BELIEFS AND YOUTH CHOICES 1 The Role of Parents in The Ontogeny of Achievement-related Motivation and Behavioral Choices Sandra D. Simpkins Arizona State University Jennifer A. Fredricks Connecticut College Jacquelynne S. Eccles University of Michigan and University of California at Irvine Author Note Sandra D. Simpkins, T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University; Jennifer Fredricks, Department of Human Development, Connecticut College; and Jacquelynne S. Eccles, School of Education, University of California at Irvine. This research was supported by Grant HD17553 from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development to Jacquelynne Eccles, Allan Wigfield, Phyllis Blumenfeld, and Rena Harold, Grant 0089972 from the National Science Foundation to Jacquelynne Eccles and Pamela Davis-Kean, and grants from the MacArthur Network on Successful Pathways through Middle Childhood to Eccles. We would like to thank the principals, teachers, students, and parents of the cooperating school districts for their participation in this project. We would also like to thank the following people for their work on the project: Amy Arbreton, Phyllis Blumenfeld, Carol Freedman-Doan, Rena Harold, Janis Jacobs, Toby Jayaratne, Mina Vida, Allan Wigfield, and Kwang Suk Yoon. Simpkins’ work on this monograph was also supported Running head: PARENT BELIEFS AND YOUTH CHOICES 2 by a William T. Grant Young Scholars Award (#7936) and a CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation (DRL-1054798). Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Sandra Simpkins, T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287. Email: [email protected]. Running head: PARENT BELIEFS AND YOUTH CHOICES 3 Table of Contents Abstract 8 Chapter 1: Introduction 9 Theoretical Perspectives on Achievement-Related Behavioral Choices 12 Foundational Issue in the Expectancy–Value Model 15 Origins of Parents’ Beliefs 15 Direction of Influence 16 Gender 17 A More Detailed Perspective on Parenting Beliefs and Behaviors 19 Parent Beliefs 20 Parent Behaviors 22 Modeling 23 Encouragement 24 Provision of Materials 24 Coactivity 25 How Do These Parent Behaviors Work Together? 26 Direction of Influence 29 Gender 29 A More Detailed Perspective on Children’s and Adolescents’ Motivational Beliefs and Participation 31 Competence Beliefs 32 Value Beliefs 33 Direction of Influence 34 Running head: PARENT BELIEFS AND YOUTH CHOICES 4 Gender 35 Our Hypotheses 37 Chapter 2: Methods 40 Participants 40 Procedures 41 Parent-Reported Indicators 42 Parents’ Beliefs 43 Parents’ Behaviors 43 Child-Reported Indicators 45 Self-Concept of Ability 46 Task Value 46 Activity Participation and Courses 47 Exogenous Variables Used as Controls 50 Parent Education 51 Family Annual Income 51 Assessment Indicators 51 Teacher Reported Indicators 51 Chapter 3: Missing Data, Descriptive Statistics, and Overview of the Analyses 53 Missing Data 53 Parent Missing Data 53 Youth Missing Data 55 Mean-Level Gender Differences 56 Plan of Analysis 56 Running head: PARENT BELIEFS AND YOUTH CHOICES 5 Parents’ Beliefs 56 Parents’ Behaviors 57 Youths’ Motivational Beliefs 57 Youths’ Participation 58 Correlations of Other Exogenous Constructs with Our Endogenous Constructs 58 Parents’ Beliefs 59 Parents’ Behaviors 59 Youths’ Motivational Beliefs 60 Youths’ Participation 60 Overview of the Analyses in the Monograph 60 Measurement Models 64 Full Cross-Lagged Structural Models 70 Exogenous Control Variables 70 Gender Moderation 71 Presentation of the Results 72 Chapter 4: Child Factors and Parent Belief Models 74 Data Analysis Plan 75 Results 76 Measurement Invariance 76 Final Models 79 Gender Moderation 83 Exogenous Control Variables 83 Running head: PARENT BELIEFS AND YOUTH CHOICES 6 Discussion 84 Chapter 5: Parent Belief and Parent Behavior Models 90 Data Analysis Plan 90 Results 93 Measurement Invariance 93 Final Models 95 Gender Moderation 98 Exogenous Control Variables 98 Discussion 98 Chapter 6: Parent Behavior and Child Belief Models 104 Data Analysis Plan 105 Results 106 Measurement Invariance 106 Final Models 108 Gender Moderation 110 Exogenous Control Variables 110 Discussion 111 Chapter 7: Youth Belief and Activity Participation Models 114 Data Analysis Plan 116 Results 117 Measurement Invariance 117 Final Models 118 Gender Moderation 120 Running head: PARENT BELIEFS AND YOUTH CHOICES 7 Exogenous Control Variables 120 Discussion 121 Chapter 8: Discussion 126 Major Findings 126 Direction and Reciprocity of Influence 128 Direction of Influence between Parents and Children 128 Direction of Influence between Individual’s Beliefs and Behaviors 131 Variation by Domain 132 Gender 136 Broader Implications for Research 138 Developmental Design 138 Effect Size 140 Studying and Conceptualizing Parenting Effects 141 Controlling for Selection Factors versus Selection as Part of the Complex Socialization Process 143 Broader Implications for Applied Work 144 Limitations and Future Directions 146 Final Summary 152 References 153 Tables 184 List of Figures 237 Figures 238 Running head: PARENT BELIEFS AND YOUTH CHOICES 8 Abstract Parents believe what they do matters. But, how does it matter? How do parents’ beliefs about their children early on translate into the choices those children make as adolescents? The Eccles’ expectancy–value model of the socialization of achievement-related behavioral choices asserts that parents’ beliefs about their children during childhood predict adolescents’ achievement-related choices through a sequence of processes that operate in a cumulative, cascading fashion over time. Specifically, parents’ beliefs predict parents’ behaviors; which, in turn, predict their children’s motivational beliefs; which, in turn, predict children’s subsequent behavioral choices. Moreover, parents’ beliefs and behaviors are responsive to the characteristics of their children, as well as to their own histories and sociocultural position. Using data from the Childhood and Beyond Study (92% European American; N = 723), we tested these predictions in the activity domains of sports, instrumental music, mathematics, and reading across a 12-year period. In testing these predictions, we looked closely at the idea of reciprocal influences and at the role of child gender as a moderator. The cross-lagged models generally supported the bidirectional influences described in Eccles’ expectancy–value model. Furthermore, the findings demonstrated that: (a) these relations were stronger in the leisure domains than in the academic domains, (b) these relations did not consistently vary based on youth gender, (c) parents were stronger predictors of their children’s beliefs than vice versa, and (d) adolescents’ beliefs were stronger predictors of their behaviors than the reverse. The findings presented in this monograph extend our understanding of the complexity of families, developmental processes that unfold over time, and the extent to which these processes are universal across domains and child gender. Keywords: activities, motivation, parenting, self-concept, value Running head: PARENT BELIEFS AND YOUTH CHOICES 9 The Role of Parents in the Ontogeny of Achievement-Related Motivation and Behavioral Choices Why do children and adolescents choose such different achievement-related activities and have such different achievement-related goals and interests? Why, for example, do some children prefer math to reading or instrumental music to sports or sports to academics? Why do children with fairly similar ability levels have different opinions of their abilities? Why, for example, do girls develop lower estimates of their math ability than boys, even though they get equivalent or higher grades? Most importantly for this monograph, what role do parents play in the socialization of these individual and group differences? Questions such as these are at the heart of our understanding of the socialization of motivated behavior. Beginning with Winterbottom (1958), developmentalists have been interested in the role that parents play in socializing achievement-related motivation and behavior (see Simpkins, Fredricks, & Eccles, in press, for a recent review). This work focused on the socialization of what was assumed to be general achievement motivation and demonstrated the importance of four components of parenting: 1) high expectations for children’s performance, 2) the provision of developmentally appropriate but challenging tasks, 3) a warm supportive emotional climate, 4) and strong role models of high achievement-oriented behaviors (e.g., Crandall, Dewey, Katkovsky, & Preston, 1964; Winterbottom, 1958). These themes continued to be reflected in the work linking parenting styles to school achievement outcomes in Baumrind’s seminal studies (e.g., Baumrind, 1971; Steinberg, Lamborn, Dornbursch, & Darling, 1992) and in the work based on self-determination theory (e.g., Grolnick & Ryan, 1989; Grolnick, Gurland, DeCourcey, & Jacob, 2002). The importance of role models, parental expectations, and the provision of specific experiences has been salient in the work on both Running head: PARENT BELIEFS AND YOUTH CHOICES 10 gender and social class-related socialization as well (e.g., Bradley & Corwyn, 2006; Davis-Kean, Malanchuk, Peck, & Eccles, 2003; Ruble, Martin, & Berenbaum, 2006). With the social cognitive revolution in the 1960’s, much greater attention was placed on beliefs as key to the motivated behaviors of parents and their