Parents’ School Satisfaction and Academic Socialization Predict Adolescents’ Autonomous Motivation

Abstract

In this mixed-methods study, we used an explanatory sequential design to investigate the processes through which parental involvement influences adolescents’ achievement motivation. One hundred twenty low-income urban parents and their sixth-grade adolescents completed questionnaires, and a subsample of 11 mothers and 11 adolescents were interviewed. Parents’ questionnaires measured their satisfaction with their childhood school experiences, their current academic socialization practices, and their educational aspirations for their adolescents. Adolescents’ questionnaires measured their motivation to achieve to please their family and their autonomous motivation (internal locus of control and internalized value of learning). In Step 1, we conducted quantitative analyses to test two path models from parental school satisfaction to each adolescent autonomous motivation dimension. Results indicated that relations between parents’ school satisfaction and their adolescents’ autonomous motivation are fully mediated by parents’ academic socialization practices and adolescents’ motivation to achieve for their family. In Step 2, we coded interviews and identified themes to help explain how mothers’ memories of their school satisfaction inform their parenting goals and practices, and how adolescents have internalized their parents’ messages and are autonomously motivated to achieve.

Keywords

academic engagement adolescence African Americans at-risk youth autonomy Latinos low income middle school motivation parental involvement

Poor and low-income youth are nearly 1½ times more likely than middle-class youth to leave school without a high school degree (Snyder & Dillow, 2012). Furthermore, compared with White youth, Black youth are 1.6 times and Hispanic youth are 3 times more likely to leave school before graduation (Snyder & Dillow, 2012). Without a diploma, emerging adults are more likely to experience unemployment, low wages, and physical and mental illness (Pleis, Lucas, & Ward, 2009). One of the strongest protective factors for these students is parents’ support (Entwisle, Alexander, & Olson, 2005). Low-income ethnic minority parents hold high aspirations for their children’s education (Leidy, Guerra, & Toro, 2010) and convey the importance of school through parental academic socialization (PAS) practices that positively influence achievement (Suizzo et al., 2012). Yet our knowledge of the mechanisms through which PAS affects adolescent achievement remains limited. In our study, we investigated parents’ past school satisfaction and current beliefs and practices, as well as their adolescents’ academic motivation. Our aim was to identify the pathways through which urban low-income parents influence and strengthen their children’s achievement motivation.

PAS in Low-Income Ethnic Minority Families

Most research on parents’ involvement has focused on their school-based activities such as participating in teacher-parent meetings and attending school events (Carranza, You, Chhuon, & Hudley, 2009). When parents do not engage in these practices, teachers may judge them as uninvolved and even uninterested in their children’s education (Hill & Torres, 2010). In fact, many low-income parents are less present in schools due to barriers such as limited English proficiency, low education levels, lack of time, and feeling unwelcome or discriminated against (Williams & Sánchez, 2013). Although identifying barriers to school involvement is important, identifying and building on existing strengths within low-income families is another potential means of increasing children’s resilience to the stressors of poverty.

In the past decade, researchers have expanded knowledge of parental involvement in poor and low-income families (e.g., Cooper & Smalls, 2010; Davis-Kean, 2005; Dumka, Gonzales, Bonds, & Millsap, 2009; Plunkett, Behnke, Sands, & Choi, 2009). Studies have shown that, especially in these lower socio-economic status (SES) families, home-based involvement can have a stronger impact on children’s achievement than school-based involvement (Hill & Tyson, 2009). Unlike middle-class parents, working-class parents are less likely to visit their children’s schools, advocate for their children’s placement in honors classes, and manage their children’s educational trajectories (Hill & Taylor, 2004). Thus, to capture the supportive practices of low-income parents, researchers have begun to use the framework of PAS.

PAS provides a broader and deeper perspective on parental involvement that more accurately measures low-income parents’ influence on their children’s schooling. PAS includes educational beliefs, values, and practices, such as providing a home environment that supports learning and communicating messages about the importance of education (Taylor, Clayton, & Rowley, 2004). With PAS, the focus is on discrete parent-child interactions that promote learning and achievement. Children internalize their parents’ messages and values through these interactions, and over time, this process shapes their cognitive and emotional schema (Grusec, 2011). Although this mechanism works across SES groups (Hill & Tyson, 2009), for low-income parents who may be less involved in schools and have less social capital to support their children, the transmission of these messages at home is especially important.

For this study, we were interested in the types of messages less-educated low-income parents convey to their adolescents and in the sources of influence on those messages. There is ample evidence that years of schooling are associated with positive educational goals and practices with children (Spera, Wentzel, & Matto, 2009). Yet, even with few years of schooling, some parents convey positive messages about school to their children possibly because their own experiences, though limited, were positive (Taylor et al., 2004). Parents who felt connected and content with their schools and teachers and enjoyed learning as children are likely to communicate their school satisfaction and encourage their children to stay in school. Furthermore, some research suggests that parents with higher self-efficacy and greater satisfaction with their children’s school are more likely to become involved in those schools (Park & Holloway, 2013). Parents with confidence in their ability to meet their children’s school-related needs, and who trust in the school and its teachers, are more likely to support their children’s learning and school engagement. It is plausible, therefore, that if parents have positive memories of their own schooling, even if limited, they may carry the benefits of those experiences with them and hold more confidence both in their ability to support their children’s schooling and in the schools themselves. In contrast, parents with negative school experiences may be less supportive, either because they value educational attainment less or because they feel less knowledgeable about school or less competent to assist their children (Hill & Taylor, 2004).

To date, only a few studies have investigated the effects of parents’ own school satisfaction on their attitudes toward their children’s education. Räty, Jaukka, and Kasanen (2004) found that parents with positive recollections of their schools were more satisfied with their children’s schools than parents with unfavorable recollections. Barnett and Taylor (2009) found positive relations between parents’ memories of school and their involvement in activities aimed at facilitating their children’s transition to kindergarten. Finally, in a qualitative study, Mapp (2003) found that low-income parents’ memories of their schooling and of their own parents’ school involvement influenced their current attitudes about their children’s education. Building on these studies, we proposed a first hypothesis that low-income parents’ memories of school satisfaction would influence their PAS beliefs and practices, regardless of their years of schooling. We expected that parents with positive school experiences would promote the importance of education and actively support their children’s schooling.

How PAS Affects Adolescents’ Motivation

Following our path model (see Figure 1), we next investigated the effects of PAS on achievement motivation. Our second hypothesis was that PAS positively predicts adolescents’ autonomous achievement motivation. Motivation has been categorized as intrinsic, doing a task purely for enjoyment, or extrinsic, doing a task to gain a benefit that is external to the self. Self-determination theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci, 2000) proposes that extrinsic motivation may be differentiated into four subtypes along a continuum. Students who are motivated by rewards from authority figures are the most externally motivated, while those who have internalized and integrated the value of academic tasks are the most autonomously motivated. Autonomously motivated students complete schoolwork because (a) they personally value learning and achievement and (b) they have an internal locus of causality and attribute success to causes within their control. Among extrinsic motivations, autonomous motivation most strongly predicts achievement and is most resilient to academic challenges (Alivernini & Lucidi, 2011). Because autonomous motivation is socialized, we were interested in how at-risk adolescents become autonomously motivated through their socialization experiences with their parents.

Figure 1.

Serial multiple mediation model of parents’ memories of school satisfaction on adolescent outcomes (identified regulation and internal control, separately) with parent socialization of the value of education and adolescent motivation to achieve for their family as mediators.

Parents encourage their children’s autonomy by showing interest in what they are learning, listening to their opinions, and supporting their individual choices (Grolnick, Ryan, & Deci, 1991). When parents are too controlling or demanding, restrict choices, and convey low expectations to their children, children are less confident in their abilities, less autonomously motivated, and more likely to disengage from school (Mih, 2013). Parent communication about the importance of education, combined with support and encouragement, promote adolescents’ autonomous motivation by increasing their self-efficacy and internal control. For example, Fan, Williams, and Wolters (2012) found that parental advising was positively related to 10th-grade Latino students’ intrinsic motivation and academic self-efficacy. Hong and Ho (2005) found that parent-child communication and parental educational aspirations predicted Latino middle and high school students’ perceived control, which predicted their achievement. Although these studies have found relations between PAS and adolescent autonomous motivation, we know little about the mediators of these relations, especially in low-income ethnic minority families. How are adolescents affected by their parents’ messages in ways that facilitate their internalization of those messages and enhance their autonomous motivation? Most of the research on relations between PAS and adolescent outcomes is quantitative, and few studies have examined how adolescents experience and internalize their parents’ PAS. Qualitative research is needed to provide in-depth explanations of these processes in the voices of adolescents and their parents.

Cultural Models of PAS: Agency and Family

Research on intergenerational transmission of values has shown that value internalization is enhanced when the parent-child relationship includes shared pleasant interactions and when children feel warmth and protection from their parents (Grusec, 2011). Furthermore, the process is reciprocal or transactional: The values and goals that parents transmit are shaped and informed in part by their understanding of their children as they are developing (Briley, Harden, & Tucker-Drob, 2014). These findings suggest that family environments characterized by mutual communication and warmth as well as parents who are interested in their children’s responses to their actions may be most conducive to children’s internalization of parental values.

Ecocultural theories propose that in collectivist cultures, children are socialized according to a cultural model where closeness and responsibility toward one’s family (interdependence) take precedence over the development of an independent self (Greenfield, Keller, Fuligni, & Maynard, 2003). Increasing research has shown that dimensions of interdependence and independence may coexist within individuals and families (Fousiani, Van Petegem, Soenens, Vansteenkiste, & Chen, 2014; Greenfield et al., 2003). In fact, in her research on Turkish families, Kagitcibasi (2005) identified a socialization model in which parents encourage agency while fostering family closeness, shaping the child’s autonomous-related self. This model describes parents’ goals and practices in cultures that highly value both family and individual achievement as means to increasing social status. SDT (Ryan & Deci, 2000) offers support for this model: When children feel a strong connection with their parents, they are more likely to internalize their values, even if those values include independence, autonomy, and individual achievement.

Ethnic minority students, especially Latinos and African Americans, constitute the majority in many poor urban school districts (Orfield, Losen, Wald, & Swanson, 2004). Understanding the cultural beliefs of these groups is therefore essential to designing effective programs. Although these groups are heterogeneous, differentiated by factors such as country of origin and generation status, broad cultural models have been found to serve as important guides for the majority of members within each group. The Latino parental cultural model of familismo includes interdependent practices, such as teaching children compliance, moral values, and respect for family elders (Gallimore & Goldenberg, 2001). Yet Latino parents also promote independent qualities, such as openness and autonomy (Buriel, 2009). African American parents also promote autonomy and self-efficacy (D. Hayes, 2011) while teaching family responsibility through the Afrocentric values of extended kin networks, respect for elders, and mutual cooperation (Pallock & Lamborn, 2006). They instill cultural pride and teach their children about the struggles they and their ancestors experienced, and they promote educational attainment as a means to social mobility and autonomy (Cooper & Smalls, 2010).

In these groups, strong family connections and feelings of responsibility may actually bolster children’s agency and autonomous motivation if parents promote individual achievement as a means to higher education and elevated social status. Specifically, these children may be motivated because they have internalized their parents’ messages about the value of education and because they feel grateful and/or indebted to their parents for their sacrifices. A few studies have found support for this pathway in middle-class European American and Chinese students (e.g., Cheung & Pomerantz, 2012; Hui, Sun, Chow, & Chu, 2011). However, only a few studies have focused on low-income U.S. families. In one such study, Fuligni, Tseng, and Lam (1999) found that high school students’ feelings of family responsibility predicted their educational aspirations across five immigrant groups. Esparza and Sánchez (2008) found that low-income Latino high school students with stronger feelings of familismo missed fewer classes and showed more effort in their schoolwork. Finally, Ceballo, Maurizi, Suarez, and Aretakis (2014) found that low-income Latino middle school students who were motivated by feelings of gratitude to their parents for their sacrifices reported greater school effort and higher educational values and expectations.

These studies suggest that when parents promote both family accountability and individual autonomy, children may develop autonomous motivation through their emotional connection to their parents. Although research on these motivational processes is expanding, there is very little on low-income urban adolescents, many of whom are African American and Latino. There is even less qualitative research that explores how these processes are perceived by the children and parents. Given the coexistence of agency and relatedness in these cultures, our third hypothesis was that parents’ PAS practices and goals would more strongly influence adolescent autonomous motivation when adolescents also express strong feelings of family responsibility to achieve academically. Putting this idea together with the first hypothesis, that a link exists between parental memories of school satisfaction and PAS, we also hypothesized that a longer pathway exists between parents’ memories of school satisfaction, PAS practices and educational goals, adolescents’ desire to achieve to please their family, and their autonomous motivation (see Figure 1). In other words, parents with memories of greater school satisfaction are more likely to engage in PAS practices and hold high goals for their adolescents. In turn, these adolescents have strong feelings of family responsibility and, consequently, high autonomous motivation.

To summarize, we were interested in the factors that contribute to parents’ academic socialization and the path through which parent socialization affects children’s academic motivation. Our study was guided by three aims: (a) to investigate how urban low-income parents’ memories of school satisfaction and their educational attainment affect their educational goals and PAS practices with their adolescents, (b) to investigate how PAS and parental educational goals affect adolescents’ academic motivation, and (c) to investigate whether PAS and adolescents’ motivation to achieve to please their family together mediate relations between parents’ school satisfaction and adolescents’ autonomous motivation.

Method

To address our research questions, we designed a mixed-methods study that followed the guidelines of Creswell and Plano Clark (2007) for an explanatory sequential model in which quantitative data that form the main focus of the study were collected in a first stage. In the second stage, qualitative data were collected with the intention to corroborate, refute, or expand on the initial findings from the quantitative data. In this methodology, the objective is to identify statistically relevant variables and pathways from the quantitative data, and these results are then integrated in the analysis of the qualitative data to validate the prevalence of these specific variables and pathways. The use of interviews following quantitative analysis of survey responses serves to provide examples of pathways and variables within context, as well as to explore deeper meanings behind the relations. Results from the quantitative and qualitative findings are integrated at the interpretation stage of the study, when results from the quantitative phase are summarized with the addition of examples or counter-examples from the qualitative phase. Inconsistencies in findings between the two analyses also provide areas of discussion and suggest questions for future studies. This mixed-method study consisted of two parts: (a) quantitative questionnaires for adolescents and their parents and (b) qualitative ethnographic interviews of mothers and their adolescents.

Participants

One hundred twenty primary caregivers (hereafter “parents”) and their sixth-grade students (M age = 12 years) from four middle schools participated in the quantitative study, which is part of a larger study of families living in low-income, urban neighborhoods. The median household income in these neighborhoods was US$35,000 at the time of the study. The student populations across these schools were 74% Mexican origin and 24% African American. The families in our study are representative of families in these neighborhoods with regard to SES and ethnicity. The adolescent sample includes 54 boys and 66 girls, and is 70% Mexican origin, 8.3% other Latinos, 15% African American, and 5% European American. Of these students, 93% were classified as economically disadvantaged and qualified for free or reduced lunch.

The parent sample (M age = 37 years) consisted of 102 mothers, 15 fathers, and 3 stepmothers; 57.5% were married, 11.7% divorced, and 20.8% single. These parents were 69.2% Mexican origin, 10% other Latinos, 13.3% African American, and 4.2% European American. The highest parental education attainment was less than high school for 34.2% of the sample, high school for 34.2%, and at least some college for 22.5%, with 8% declining to state. A subsample of 11 mothers and their adolescents who were largely representative of the larger sample participated in interviews (see Table 1). The mean age of mothers in the interview sample who stated their age was 35; 64% were married, 36% were single; and 64% were of Mexican origin with 36% African American. However, with regard to education level, mothers who did not complete high school were overrepresented: 73% did not graduate from high school, which is twice as many as in the full sample. Ten of the adolescents interviewed were 12 years old and two were 13 years old, and all were in sixth grade. There were 6 boys and 5 girls.

Table 1.

Demographic Characteristics of Interview Sample.

Mother age	Ethnic origin	Birthplace	Marital status	Education level	Occupation	Number and sex of children	Target child’s sex and age	Child’s birthplace	Birth order
	MEX	Mexico	Single	6th grade	Cleaning/laborer	3 boys	12-year-old boy	Mexico	First
32	MEX	Mexico	Married	6th grade	Cook	2 boys, 2 girls	13-year-old boy	The United States	Second
44	AA	The United States	Married	College	Unemployed	1 boy, 1 girl	12-year-old boy	The United States	First
26	MEX	Mexico	Married	10th grade	Restaurant worker	2 boys	12-year-old boy	Mexico	First
40	AA	The United States	Single	Graduate school	Accountant	1 girl	12-year-old girl	The United States	Only
	MEX	Mexico	Married	6th grade	Cafeteria worker	1 boys, 2 girls	12-year-old girl	The United States	Second
30	MEX	Mexico	Single^a	3 years	Home maker	3 boys, 2 girls	12-year-old boy	Mexico
34	MEX	Mexico	Married	9th grade	Home maker	3 boys, 2 girls	12-year-old boy	Mexico	Second
46	AA	The United States	Married	GED	Home health aid	2 girls	12-year-old girl	The United States	First
33	AA	The United States	Single^a	8th grade	Home maker	1 boy, 2 girls	12-year-old girl	The United States	First
31	MEX	Mexico	Married	3rd grade	Home maker	1 boy, 1 girl	13-year-old girl	The United States	Second

Note. MEX = Mexican; AA = African American; GED = General Education Development tests.

Lives with boyfriend/stepfather.

Procedures

We administered questionnaires to students with parental consent at their schools in their preferred language, and bilingual research assistants were available to assist. Students were then given a questionnaire packet for their parents to complete and asked to return these to the school. Students received a small gift and parents were offered a US$10 gift card for completing the questionnaire. To recruit parents for the qualitative study, we included invitations for interviews in parent questionnaire packets. We attempted to contact all 45 mothers who indicated interest and met our inclusion criteria (completed questionnaires by both mother and child, and either Mexican American or African American ethnic origin). We were not able to reach a large proportion of these respondents either because the telephone numbers given had changed or were no longer operational, or because they did not return our messages. Of those we did reach, several either declined to be interviewed or agreed but later canceled their appointments. Altogether, we were able to interview 11 mother-child dyads (see Table 1). Mothers and adolescents were interviewed in their homes separately by trained researchers fluent in the participant’s native language. A different native speaker transcribed and translated the interviews, and the transcripts were backtranslated to identify discrepancies that were then resolved between native speakers. Mothers received US$20 gift cards and adolescents received US$10 gift cards for participating in interviews.

Measures

Unless otherwise specified, all alpha coefficients are for the current sample.

PAS practices

We used two scales of the Parental Academic Socialization Questionnaire (PASQ; Suizzo & Soon, 2006). The first scale, Value of Education, reflects parents’ messages about the importance of education and includes home-based practices such as monitoring schoolwork, maintaining a schedule, offering supplies and space to complete schoolwork, and sharing stories about their own schooling (α = .84). Sample items include “I ask my child if he or she has homework to do” and “I talk to my child about how important education is for his or her future.” The 11 items on the second scale (α = .83), Emotional Autonomy Support, reflect parents’ support of their children’s individual interests. Items include “I listen to my child’s opinions and ideas about what he or she is learning” and “I try to get my child to develop his or her special strengths or qualities.” For both scales, parents indicate the frequency of their behaviors on a 5-point Likert-type scale from never to very often. In previous studies using a child-report version of this scale (Suizzo & Soon, 2006), we obtained reliabilities of .86 for active involvement (similar to Value of Education) and .91 for Emotional Autonomy Support.

Parents’ educational goals

Parents were asked two questions regarding their children’s future education to measure both aspirations and expectations: (a) “How much schooling do you HOPE that your sixth-grade child(ren) will obtain?” and (b) “How much schooling do you EXPECT or BELIEVE that your sixth-grade child(ren) will obtain?” They selected from six possible options, ranging from 8 years or less to 18 or more years (graduate school).

Parents’ school satisfaction

Parents completed 14 items measuring how much they liked and felt connected to their schools, teachers, and peers when they were in school. This measure included 6 items from the School Satisfaction subscale (Huebner, 1994). We added 8 items to measure satisfaction with teachers and peers. Instructions to respondents state, “If you attended Primary/Elementary School, please answer these questions about that school.” Parents indicated their level of agreement on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from not at all true to very true. Sample items include “I enjoyed learning at this school” and “I liked my teachers” (α = .87). Two prior studies using the School Satisfaction subscale with low-income adolescents obtained reliabilities of .79 (Baker, 1998; Long, Huebner, Wedell, & Hills, 2012).

Parents’ education level

Parents reported their total years of schooling by selecting from a set of six possible options, from 8 years or less to 18 or more years (graduate school).

Achieve for family Questionnaire (AFQ)

Adolescents completed the AFQ (Suizzo et al., 2012) which consists of nine items measuring the degree to which adolescents are motivated to achieve to please their family. Items reflect recognition of sacrifices made by their family for their education and desire to bring pride and joy to their parents through achievement. Sample items include “I work hard on schoolwork to repay my parent(s) for all they do for me” and “I work hard in school because I want my parent(s) to be proud of me.” Responses range from 1 (very untrue) to 5 (very true; α = .84). In a previous study within the same population (Suizzo et al., 2012), we obtained an alpha coefficient of .90.

Autonomous motivation

We measured both dimensions of adolescents’ autonomous motivation, internalized value of education and locus of causality. To measure the first dimension, we used the Identified Self-Regulation scale of the Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire (ASR; Ryan & Connell, 1989). Adolescents responded to four items measuring the degree to which they have internalized the value of education and do schoolwork because they believe learning is important. Sample items include “Because I want to understand the subject” and “Because it is important to me to do my classwork” (α = .77). Responses range from 1 (not at all true) to 5 (very true). In the authors’ original studies using this measure, they reported alpha coefficients for the Identified Self-Regulation scale ranging from .67 to .86. Subsequent studies have reported alphas ranging from .75 (Burton, Lydon, D’Alessandro, & Koestner, 2006) to .80 (Griffith & Grolnick, 2014) for this subscale.

To measure the second dimension, the degree to which students attribute their successes and failures to their own control, we used the Personal or Internal Control scale of the Multidimensional Measure of Children’s Perceptions of Control (MMCPC; Connell, 1985). Adolescents responded to four items, such as “If I want to do well in school it is up to me to do it” and “If I get bad grades, it’s my own fault” (α = .73). Responses range from 1 (not at all true) to 5 (very true). This scale has been widely used to measure children’s locus of control (Muldoon, Lowry, Prentice, & Trew, 2005), and studies of early adolescents have reported alpha coefficients ranging from .70 (Jackson & Frick, 1998) to .75 (El-Sheikh & Klaczynski, 1993).

Mother and Adolescent Interviews

The semi-structured interview protocol asked mothers to reflect on five broad areas: their feelings about their relationship with their adolescent, their broad daily routines from awakening to bedtime and shared family activities, their personal experiences of school, their beliefs about learning, and their long-term goals for their children. Adolescent interviews mirrored mother interviews with questions about their daily routines, relationships with their mothers, feelings about their family, experiences and beliefs about school and learning, and long-term goals. In addition, follow-up questions were asked to probe the meanings of the participants’ answers and to elicit illustrative examples and stories.

To analyze the qualitative data, we used modified analytic induction (Bogdan & Biklen, 1992), a type of grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) in which hypotheses emerging from prior research are used to generate coding categories. Because we were conducting a mixed-methods study, the preliminary hypotheses we used to generate codes came from the quantitative stage. We used the constructs measured by the variables in our quantitative study, such as parental promotion of the value of education, and adolescent internalized motivation, to generate descriptive codes. Next, we identified quotes within descriptive codes that shared the same dimension and used these to construct interpretive codes. For example, we assigned the interpretive code education messages to mothers’ quotes about various types of verbal communications urging children to value education. Finally, we identified themes that connected interpretive codes in both mother and adolescent interviews. For example, the theme better life connects the interpretive codes high educational aspirations, avoid hard work/labor, and grandparents’ influence, and represents mothers’ and adolescents’ desire that adolescents achieve at a higher level and have a better life than their parents.

The process of developing and refining codes, creating a coding manual, and coding transcripts took place over an extended period. During this time, we engaged in multiple readings of transcripts and discussions of the emerging coding categories. At least two researchers coded the first 10 transcripts, and discrepancies in their coding were discussed and resolved. We were attentive to participant utterances that could not be clearly categorized using our emerging codes, and we used these challenges to consider alternative explanations and refine codes. The next step of the analytic process was to construct tables to consolidate and analyze transcript segments within each code and then to tally the occurrences of each code. This enabled us to identify patterns within each group (mothers and adolescents). Finally, we compared mothers and adolescents within dyads to triangulate (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) their responses by determining the degree of agreement between them. Given that each member of a dyad takes a different perspective on their relationship, this process enabled us to build a holistic understanding of their shared experiences and ideas. At this stage, we again noted discrepant cases and searched for alternative explanations by re-reading and discussing the transcripts and consulting experts.

Quantitative Results

To examine the relations between variables in our first two hypotheses, we ran bivariate Pearson correlations. For our first research aim, we investigated whether parent school satisfaction and parent education levels were related to PAS practices and goals (both aspirations and expectations). Parents’ school satisfaction was positively related to the PAS subscales, Emotional Autonomy Support (r = .31, p = .001) and Value of Education (r = .42, p < .001), with medium effect sizes (Cohen, 1992), although school satisfaction was not related to parents’ educational goals (see Table 2). Greater school satisfaction tended to predict higher frequencies of PAS practices. Parental education level was not related to PAS practices or goals, with parents of all education levels reporting relatively high frequencies of practices (between often and very often) and high educational goals for their children.

Table 2.

Means, Standard Deviations, and Intercorrelations for Parent and Adolescent Variables.

Measure	M	SD	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1. PAS Emotional Autonomy Support	4.31	0.49	—
2. PAS Value of Education	4.38	0.51	.75**	—
3. Parent educational aspirations	5.50	0.80	.05	.06	—
4. Parent educational expectations	4.97	1.11	.14	.11	.57**	—
5. Parent memories of school satisfaction	3.45	0.56	.31**	.42**	.01	−.05	—
6. Parent education level	2.80	1.35	.13	.09	.03	.12	.04	—
7. Adolescent motivation to achieve for family	3.53	0.50	.17	.31**	.16	.18	.22*	.26**	—
8. Adolescent identified regulation	3.31	0.64	.08	.09	.27**	.39**	.10	.15	.58**	—
9. Adolescent internal control	3.44	0.61	.17	.17	.15	.16	.06	.28**	.50**	.39**	—

Note. Parent educational aspirations, expectations, and education level: 1 = 8 years or less, 2 = 9 to 11 years, 3 = high school diploma; 4 = some college; 5 = college degree; 6 = graduate school. PAS = parental academic socialization.

p < .05. **p < .01.

For Research Question 2, we investigated the relations between PAS practices and goals and adolescent achievement motivation. The PAS practice of valuing of education was positively associated with adolescents’ motivation to achieve for family (r = .31, p = .001). In addition, parental educational aspirations and expectations were both associated with adolescents’ identified regulation with small to medium effect sizes (r = .27, p = .003; r = .39, p < .001).

Based on the statistically significant correlations, to address our third research question, we then tested whether the PAS scale value of education and adolescents’ motivation to achieve for family acted as serial mediators in the relation between parents’ school satisfaction and the two dimensions of adolescents’ autonomous motivation: identified regulation and internal control. We ran serial multiple mediator models to investigate direct and indirect effects using the PROCESS macro (A. F. Hayes, 2013). In this analysis, ordinary-least-squares path analysis is run including all possible paths between variables with bias-corrected, 10,000 sample bootstrap confidence intervals (CI) generated for indirect paths. We ran two models in which the antecedent was parents’ memories of school satisfaction, the first mediator was the PAS dimension value of education, the second mediator was adolescents’ motivation to achieve for family, and the outcome was one of the two dimensions of autonomous motivation (identified regulation or internal control) controlling for the other dimension in each model. Results for each regression between the antecedent (school satisfaction), the first mediator (parental value of education), the second mediator (adolescent desire to achieve for family), and the outcomes (identified regulation or internal control) are displayed in Table 3.

Table 3.

Regression Coefficients, Standard Errors, and Model Summary Information for the Multiple Mediator Model of Parent Memories of School Satisfaction on Adolescent Outcomes Shown in Figure 1.

Antecedent	Path	Consequent
		M₁Value of education				M₂Achieve for family				Y₁Identified regulation				Y₂Internal control
		Coefficient	SE	p	Path	Coefficient	SE	p	Path	Coefficient	SE	p	Path	Coefficient	SE	p
X ₁	a₁	0.38	.08	<.001	a₂	0.09	.09	.27	c′	0.03	.09	.77	c′	−0.07	.10	.45
Parent memories of school satisfaction
M ₁					d₁	0.26	.09	.008	b₁	−0.14	.10	.18	b₁	0.08	.11	.48
Value of Education
M ₂									b₂	0.69	.11	<.001	b₂	0.49	.13	<.001
Achieve for family
Constant	i_M ₁	3.06	.27	<.001	i_M ₂	2.08	.40	<.001	i_Y ₁	0.92	.49	.06	i_Y ₁	1.15	.50	.02
		R² = .17				R² = .10				R² = .36				R² = .27
		F(1, 118) = 24.99				F(2, 117) = 6.69				F(4, 115) = 16.01				F(4, 115) = 10.49
		p < .001				p = .002				p < .001				p < .001

With identified regulation as the ultimate outcome, controlling for internal control, the overall model was significant, R² = .36, F(4, 115) = 16.01, p < .001, and achieve for family was the only significant direct predictor of identified regulation. In addition, the serial mediation path from the independent variable, school satisfaction, through the two mediators was significant with a point estimate of .07 (95% CI = [.02, .16]) and a completely standardized indirect effect of .04 (95% CI = [.01, .11]). Parents’ school satisfaction is positively associated with discussions about the value of education and daily engagement in academically supportive practices. Adolescents whose parents engage more frequently in these practices feel a stronger desire to complete schoolwork to please their parents, which then contributes to their identified regulation.

With adolescent internal control as the ultimate outcome, controlling for identified regulation, the overall model was significant, R² = .27, F(4, 115) = 16.01, p < .001, and only achieve for family was a direct predictor of internal control. Although parental school satisfaction and value of education were not direct predictors of internal control, the complete serial mediation path was significant with a point estimate of .05 (95% CI = [.01, .12]) and a completely standardized indirect effect of .04 (95% CI = [.01, .10]). Parents’ memories of school satisfaction predict their adolescents’ internal control through the mediating variables of parental socialization of the value of education and adolescents’ motivation to achieve to please their family.

Qualitative Results

Mothers’ Perspectives: School Satisfaction and Promoting the Value of Education

Our first research question was about the relation between memories of school satisfaction, educational attainment, and PAS practices. We looked for evidence of a connection between these variables in the interviews with mothers. All the mothers stated that they liked school. Seven said they were diligent, hardworking students and recounted stories about enjoying learning and feeling competent at academic tasks. A Mexican-origin mother who left school after third grade told us: “In the schools in Mexico, the teachers were good. I liked also how they taught us well too. My classmates too, everyone behaved well with me.” Several mothers described how they share memories of their schooling and stories with their children and use those stories to teach lessons, demonstrating a clear connection between memories and PAS practices, particularly the value of education. A Mexican-origin mother told us:

Math was what I liked the most . . . There were these other girls that always wanted to copy, and I told them no and they got mad at me, and I said, “No.” So we talk about this with [daughter] and it makes her laugh. She said, “Oh, mom, why didn’t you let them?” And I said, “No, because they have to learn too.”

In terms of educational attainment, 8 of the 11 mothers did not finish high school and 5 left before ninth grade. In seven of these cases, their parents made them quit either to help support the family or because they believed school was unnecessary for a girl who was destined to marry. A Mexican-origin mother told us:

I was going to turn 15, and I would ask [my father] to let me go. And he would say no. And I would ask him why and he would say, “Because to get married you don’t need to have studies. What are you going to do in school? That’s all a waste of time.”

For these mothers from rural areas of Mexico, attending school was a financial burden not only due to the cost of uniforms and supplies but also because when in school, they could not earn money to help their families. By middle school, six of the seven Mexican-origin children worked in the family business or farm, or did household chores and cared for younger siblings. One mother explained, “They didn’t let us go to school because they put us to work. Then we had to make the food. They went to plant the corn, they took us to the fields.” Interestingly, the two mothers who graduated from high school and went to college had parents who adamantly supported their schooling. One African American mother explained,

My dad was like, “Y’all have opportunities that I did not have.” And there were ten of us, like I said, and let me tell you, he worked his butt off because he was determined that if any of his children wanted to go to college, they were going! I was the only one.

Supporting the first step of our path model, eight mothers drew connections between their memories of school satisfaction, their sadness about having left school early, and their high hopes for their children’s education. They convey those hopes through direct communication about the importance of education and studying for obtaining good jobs and leading better lives. Nine of the mothers warn their children using consejos (Reese, 2002), or stories of people with little education who struggle and work hard in jobs such as cleaning or construction.

Five mothers used themselves as negative examples to their children. They expressed deep sadness about not finishing school and were adamant that their children not follow their path. These examples help explain why there was no relation between educational attainment and PAS practices in the quantitative stage of the study. Despite their fewer years of schooling, these mothers were still able to socialize their children to the importance of education. A Mexican-origin mother poignantly stated, “I tell him to better himself so that he can be something in this life. I tell him, not like me, since I am nothing in this life.” An African American mother who left school after eighth grade described sharing her regret:

We were in the car one time and I was like “You know I didn’t go to college, but I want you to go. And there are a lot of things I wish I could go back and redo but I can’t and I just want you to see. I know you don’t want nobody telling you what to do. You wanna do things for yourself, but this is one experience you shouldn’t want to experience, having to struggle or having jobs where you’re just making enough or gotta work two jobs. You know, just not living comfortably the way I would like to be living.”

The qualitative interviews also supported the high frequency of PAS practices reported in the survey results. All the mothers described enforcing rules about homework and bedtime, and monitoring their children’s activities, mirroring practices measured by the PAS questionnaire. Seven mothers who had left school early to work and help their family stated that the only work they wanted their children to do was schoolwork. Ten of the 11 mothers ask their children what homework they have every day, help them or make sure someone else helps them if they need it, and check to make sure their child has completed it. Three mothers said that they offer incentives such as privileges or money for grades; 3 others told us that they punish or take away privileges in response to lower performance. One Mexican-origin mother told us, “I tell him, if you don’t pass school, if your grades fall, I’ll take away the [video] game.”

Adolescents’ Motivation: Internalizing the Value of Education

Our second and third research questions concerned the pathways between PAS practices, parental educational goals, and adolescents’ academic motivation, including both adolescents’ motivation to achieve to please their family and their autonomous motivation. Nine of the adolescents we interviewed shared personal goals and beliefs about education that mirrored those we heard from their mothers. In general, they agreed with their mothers on the level of education they hoped to obtain, and most planned to attend college. Another striking parallel was the view of education as a means to obtain a job in which one does not “work hard.” Both mothers and children defined hard work as unskilled or semi-skilled labor such as construction or house cleaning. For example, a Mexican American girl told us:

One thing my mom has always said to me was to reach for a goal that is . . . something you are going to like and to not suffer, because like, she says that’s how people are suffering, like they work in the hot, hot and sun, so she told me to achieve and I am not going to be like them, and I can be inside.

The desire expressed by seven mothers that their children do better or be better than them was echoed in seven adolescent interviews. For example, a Mexican American boy told us:

They say if I want to reach my goals I have to do a lot of hard work. That’s what it takes and not to be cleaning houses like them. Because they don’t want me to have the same future as them.

An African American girl told us:

But my mom, she didn’t get her diploma. And so my mom’s like, “I want you to have a better life than me.” So, I don’t wanna look down on my mom because she’s still my mom. She shows me that you can make something out of just not having so much. You can be somebody. Just work at it and you can and you will, you can be somebody.

One discrepancy between the quantitative results and the qualitative analysis concerned the quantitative construct achieve for family, studying to please one’s parents. We did not find clear support in the interviews for the prevalence of this construct as hypothesized. Adolescents talked about being motivated to study hard in school and continue their education because they shared the value of education conveyed to them by their parents, not in order to repay or honor them. Three adolescents stated, however, that they wanted to obtain a college degree and a lucrative job in order to financially support their parents in the future, indicating that there was a connection between adolescents’ motivation to achieve and their obligation to parents, but this obligation might be more material than previously conceptualized. For example, when asked about the benefits of education, a Mexican American girl responded, “The good things are like I will help my mom and my dad with their problems that they have or things that they never had, and help my family mostly.” Another Mexican American boy stated, “I don’t want my mom to be working like that that much so that’s why I want to get a lot of money so she cannot work.”

Finally, echoing the quantitative findings on the prevalence of autonomous motivation, 9 of the 11 adolescents showed internal control, attributing their school successes and failures to effort, attention in class, or time spent studying. A Mexican American boy explained, “Because when I see my grade I will be like ‘Oh I got a good grade on this and I am doing good.’ So I will keep trying harder to make it better.” They also exhibited identified regulation, having internalized their parents’ messages about the value of education. An African American girl talked about how her parents’ high expectations increased her desire to improve her grades.

Like an 85 isn’t good enough. You need a 90 or 95 or above, 96 or above. Like any grade lower than a 90, they’re like, “Why is this this? Why can’t you get it higher?” Yeah, now I have an 85 in math. And they were like, “You need to bring it up.” And a project went out and my teacher said I can try to raise my grade here, so I was like, “Okay!”

These nine adolescents also gave examples of being autonomously motivated to learn or do well in school with no reference to their parents, as exemplified by this excerpt from an interview of a Mexican American boy:

Boy:

In the summer I read a lot so I could get better at it.

Interviewer:

So did somebody tell you to do that or did you decide on your own?

Boy:

I decided that’s what it took to pass cause nobody else is going to care for me what’s going to happen to my future.

In conclusion, the interviews helped explain the path between mothers’ memories of school satisfaction and their valuing of education for their adolescents, supporting the quantitative results regarding the first research question. In support of the second and third research questions, we also found evidence that adolescents are motivated to study at least in part to please their parents and that they internalize their parents’ messages about the importance of education. Adolescents expressed a belief in the importance of school achievement independent of their parents’ educational goals for them, and described agency and control over the behaviors needed to achieve their goals.

Discussion

Our study contributes new knowledge about PAS of adolescents in low-income families. We highlight three significant findings. First, ours is one of the first studies to investigate and find effects of not only parents’ schooling level on children, but of their school experiences. Second, the path models and interview data suggest that children’s internalization of motivation works because they care about their family and value their socialization messages. Parents’ stories about their school experiences provide an emotional bridge from their past to their children’s present, motivating these adolescents to study and achieve both for their families and for themselves. Finally, these findings offer further support for a more differentiated, culturally grounded theory of motivation.

The Influence of Memories

Through our quantitative analysis, we found that parents’ memories of their school satisfaction are associated with the strategies and messages they use to socialize their children to be good students. Furthermore, the qualitative analysis revealed that the mothers held positive memories of school and learning, even if their parents were unsupportive or if they had been forced to leave school early. These memories of school satisfaction seemed to counterbalance their low levels of school attainment to positively influence their attitudes about school with their children. The quantitative analysis found medium effects for the correlations of parents’ school satisfaction and their parenting strategies, corroborating and extending the findings of two previous studies of parents’ school recollections and parental behavior and attitudes mentioned in the introduction (Barnett & Taylor, 2009; Mapp, 2003).

In their study, Barnett and Taylor interviewed mothers of kindergarteners and found that their positive recollections of their own parents’ involvement predicted greater involvement in their children’s transition to kindergarten activities. Their recollections of their school experiences, however, did not predict more discussions with their own children about the transition. The sample was 60% African American and 40% European American, and only 6% had not completed high school. Our sample consists of both Mexican Americans and African Americans, and a greater proportion did not complete high school. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, our study therefore extends these findings to low-income, less-educated parents, most of whom are Latino and African American, and to parents of adolescents. These parents’ memories of school satisfaction did predict discussions about school and the importance of education with their adolescents.

Mapp (2003) interviewed 18 low-income parents of elementary school children about their home- and school-based involvement in their children’s educational activities. All parents stated that their own parents’ involvement level influenced their current beliefs and practices with their children. Interestingly, whether their parents were actively involved or not at all involved, the parents in the study expressed a strong commitment to being involved in their own children’s education. Although this study investigated parents’ involvement extensively, questions about parents’ memories of their school experiences were not examined. Our study extends these findings by including parents’ recollections of their teachers and schools. Furthermore, our study included young adolescents, an age-group that has not been the focus of any studies of parental recollections to date.

In both stages of our study, our findings provide support for the influence of positive recollections on parenting practices. A small body of research has found evidence that parents’ positive memories of school moderate the negative impact of risk factors on their parenting strategies. Kochanska, Aksan, Penney, and Boldt (2007) found that parents with happy memories of school and of their families growing up were less likely to use intrusive parenting with their infants, despite exposure to high demographic risk. Similarly, we found that parents’ memories were positively related to their autonomy supportive practices with their adolescents. Research has also shown that parents’ memories of their parents’ support predict their parental self-efficacy with young children (Suzuki, Holloway, Yamamoto, & Mindnich, 2009). Our study extends this literature to parents of adolescents and demonstrates that memories of positive school experiences can have positive effects on parenting practices, even if associated with negative memories of parents.

Family as a Bridge to Autonomy

Our mediation models highlight the bridges from parents’ school satisfaction to their academic socialization practices with their adolescents, to adolescents’ perceptions of their parents’ socialization messages, and to their autonomous motivation to achieve. These results, though with relatively small effect sizes, suggest that the desire to please their parents is an impetus for adolescents to internalize the value of education and assume control over their schoolwork. In our qualitative follow-up, adolescents recalled their parents’ stories of school enjoyment and sadness about not finishing school. They also expressed a strong desire to achieve what their parents were not able to. Overall, these results suggest that parents’ transmission of messages about the value of schooling is facilitated in part by the emotions attached to those messages.

These results contribute to a small but growing body of research showing that children’s feelings of family responsibility and closeness may coexist with their autonomous motivation. Pomerantz, Qin, Wang, and Chen (2011) found that European American middle school students’ motivation to please their family predicted their mastery orientation and valuing of education. In their study of urban, low-income, mostly Dominican and Puerto Rican adolescents, Ceballo and colleagues (2014) found that students’ awareness of their parents’ sacrifices so that they can study predict their academic effort and valuing of education. Finally, Pallock and Lamborn (2006) found that African American high school students with greater extended kinship support reported stronger school values and work orientations. Our study extends these findings to a sample of low-income mostly Mexican origin and African American adolescents and includes locus of control within the autonomous motivational constructs measured. Unlike previous studies, our study included parents, demonstrating a bridge between parent-reported academic socialization to autonomous motivation through students’ desire to achieve to please their family.

This mixed-methods study points to the role of emotions as conduits through which parental messages are transmitted to children. According to SDT (Ryan & Deci, 2000), when children have strong feelings of relatedness to their parents, they are more open and trusting and more likely to internalize their parents’ messages. To date, however, few researchers have investigated the specific mechanisms through which emotions affect cognition and motivation (Schutz & Lanehart, 2002). The growing field of positive psychology may offer some avenues for further research into these processes. Fredrickson (2001) has proposed a broaden-and-build theory stating that positive emotions such as joy, pride, love, and contentment open peoples’ minds so that they become more flexible, adaptable, efficient, and creative. This broadminded thinking enhances coping skills and psychological resilience to stressful situations. In fact, there is some research showing that warm and supportive parenting enhances empathic concern and perspective-taking in adolescents (Miklikowska, Duriez, & Soenens, 2011). Empathy and perspective-taking may be emotional and cognitive pathways through which adolescents adopt and internalize their parents’ values and goals.

Because we complemented our quantitative study with interviews, we were able to further explore the function of emotions as channels for educational values. Parents’ emotions about their own school experiences are still strong when they communicate with their children about school. The mothers we interviewed conveyed intense emotions of sadness and regret as well as positive emotions of determination and desire that their children not follow their path. Their adolescents appear to have absorbed their emotions; they expressed love for and trust in their parents, echoing their goals and values. Yet, the adolescents claimed these aspirations as their own, suggesting that they had internalized their parents’ messages. Both the quantitative and qualitative stages of our study support including measures of family closeness, trust, and responsibility in future studies to uncover mechanisms through which children internalize parents’ goals and values and become autonomous selves.

Limitations and Future Research

Because our quantitative study is not longitudinal, we could not definitively determine the direction of effects between our variables. In addition, the indirect paths from parents’ school satisfaction to adolescents’ motivation yielded relatively small effect sizes, indicating that other variables, such as prior achievement, may also be contributing to adolescent outcomes. However, the magnitude of an effect size should be considered in conjunction with its practical importance and substantive significance within a field (Preacher & Kelley, 2011). Because our findings are unique in the research on PAS, even with small effects, these models make a significant contribution. They may stimulate further research on the relation between parents’ own school satisfaction and their academic socialization practices. These results also have theoretical and practical implications, as we explain in the next section. Furthermore, our qualitative findings illustrate how these pathways operate in a subsample of families.

Another limitation is the relatively small sample sizes of both studies and the small proportion of African Americans and non-maternal caregivers. Although representative of the urban neighborhoods from which they were drawn, these smaller samples precluded investigations of ethnic group and caregiver variations. Finally, it is likely that the mothers who volunteered to be interviewed were those who most valued education and that due to social desirability, their responses were more positively biased. Adolescents confirmed many of their mothers’ messages in separate interviews, however, and several mothers were openly self-critical, thereby helping to alleviate concerns about the validity of the mother interview data.

Theoretical and Policy Implications

These findings provide further support for the more nuanced conceptualization of motivation proposed by SDT. SDT states that students who are motivated to do their schoolwork because they value the long-term benefits of achievement are less extrinsically motivated than students who do their schoolwork in response to their parents’ controlling behaviors (Ryan & Deci, 2000). The former have internalized the value of education and are more autonomously motivated. Our results offer further insight into this internalization process, suggesting that adolescents’ desire to honor and repay their families may precipitate their internalization of the value of education. In a recent study of low-income Latino adolescents, Ceballo and colleagues (2014) found that adolescents with greater awareness of their parents’ sacrifices for their education reported greater school effort and higher valuing of education. Our study extends this research by focusing specifically on the internal psychological mechanisms, locus of control and identified regulation, through which parental values affect academic behaviors. In our quantitative study, adolescents’ desire to repay their parents through academic achievement contributed to greater internalized motivation, suggesting that on average, this sense of responsibility was not experienced as an external imposition or burden.

Our results also offer support for the family socialization model identified by Kagitcibasi (2005) in which autonomy and relatedness are not seen as contradictory values within the self. For most of the adolescents in our study, their feelings of responsibility to their families coexisted alongside their autonomous motivation and internal loci of control. To date, the majority of research having identified this socialization model has focused on families with young children. Our study contributes to a small but growing body of research on families with adolescents and extends this theory’s applicability to a wider range of families.

These study findings also suggest the need for a reconceptualization of the ways in which we measure, encourage, and seek out parental involvement. Our study contributes to the growing body of work in support of academic socialization as a theoretical framework to measure and explain parental involvement. By using parents’ transmission of messages about the value of education as a measure of academic socialization in our quantitative study, and finding a link to adolescent motivation, we expanded on this framework and provided more evidence of its strength. The tendency to focus exclusively on school-based involvement when evaluating parental involvement may disadvantage low-income and immigrant families. Instead, taking an academic socialization perspective means valuing home-based practices in a broader, more balanced framework for engaging families as educational partners. Teaching this broader framework to pre-service teachers, especially those planning to work in low-income neighborhoods, would be an important first step in this direction.

Finally, our results point to three school policy recommendations. First, in the interviews, both parents and children talked about the importance of education in terms of the ability to learn a skilled trade or profession. Therefore, making more explicit the connections between educational success and occupational opportunities in curriculum and school activities may serve to increase adolescent academic motivation. Second, parents need to be welcomed into the school as an integral part of a child’s educational experience, regardless of parental education level. Schools can invite parents to observe their children engaging in stimulating learning activities and share positive experiences with them, creating supportive emotional connections between parents, children, and their schools. To the extent parents might feel ambivalent about their children’s schools due to their past experiences, schools need to address this ambivalence, as this study found a connection between parents’ school satisfaction and their PAS practices. Building new memories in a positive school setting may begin to erode anxiety or ambivalence associated with the older memories.

Third, we can let parents know that their messages matter and that they translate to actual motivation and academic behaviors in their children. Parent-support specialists and counselors should consider encouraging parents to talk to their children about their own memories of school satisfaction, about what they enjoyed about school, and even some of their educational regrets. According to the results of this study, these discussions are remembered by children and influence how children think about the value of education, impacting their academic motivation. This suggestion might be especially important for parents without advanced degrees as they may be reluctant to talk about their lack of education, yet their stories appear especially impactful on the value their children place in schooling. Although parents may hope and suspect that their messages influence their children, in the face of negative peer pressures and other risk factors, reinforcing this belief could increase their confidence and self-efficacy as parents.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the cooperation and generosity of the Austin Independent School District and various middle school administrators, teachers, students, and their parents.

Authors’ Note

Partial results of this study were presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research on Child Development, Denver, Colorado, April 2, 2009.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was funded by a grant from The Spencer Foundation (Grant 200800101).

Author Biographies

Marie-Anne Suizzo earned a doctorate in human development and psychology at Harvard University. She is currently an associate professor of human development, culture, and learning sciences in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on parents’ academic, cultural, and racial socialization of children and adolescents across cultures, ethnic groups, and socio-economic environments.

Karen Moran Jackson earned a PhD in educational psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and is a research associate at the University of Texas Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis. Her research focuses on adolescent development of academic attitudes, interests, and identity in science.

Erin Pahlke earned a PhD in educational psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and is an assistant professor of psychology at Whitman College. Her research interests include children’s and adolescents’ understanding of discrimination, social stereotyping, and gender and racial inequalities across contexts.

Shannon McClain earned a PhD in counseling psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and is an assistant professor at Towson University. Her research focuses on the influence of social identities and culture on psychosocial functioning, including development, learning, and mental health.

Yesenia Marroquin received a PhD in school psychology from the University of Texas at Austin and is a postdoctoral fellow in child and adolescent psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Harbor Medical Center. Her research interests include obesity interventions for youth of color and familial influences in the development of body image among obese Latina adolescents and their maternal caregivers.

Lauren A. Blondeau earned a PhD in educational psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and is a lecturer in the Department of Statistics and Data Sciences at the University of Texas (UT). Her research interests center around gender differences in math-based outcomes, with a focus on math self-efficacy and other motivational factors at the postsecondary level.

KyongJoo Hong is a PhD candidate in educational psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests include home-based parental involvement and relations between perceived demand and resilience across different cultural groups.

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