Parents' estimations of their own intelligence and that of their children: a comparison between English and Icelandic parents.
In this study, 158 parents (79 fathers and 79 mothers) with a mean age of 38.3 yrs (SD = 8.2), estimated their own, and their children's, overall intelligence as well as their children's score on the 12 intelligence scales from the Wechsler's Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III). The sample included English (n = 122) and Icelandic parents (n = 36), and a comparison between them showed few differences except that Icelandic parents' estimates were lower than English parents' estimates. The results showed fathers estimated their own overall intelligence higher than mothers estimated theirs and sons were estimated higher than daughters on overall intelligence. Two factors (verbal, performance) of intelligence were identified through factor analysis of the ratings of the 12 WISC subscale score estimates. A hierarchical regression showed that these two factors explained most of the variance in the estimation of the child's overall intelligence; however, gender of child and parents' self-estimated own overall intelligence added incremental variance.
Department of Psychology, University College London, London, UK. a.furnham@ucl.ac.uk
Adrian
A
Furnham
Halldor
H
Valgeirsson
D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007055:Iceland; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom; D014888:Wechsler Scales