The mediation of mothers' self-fulfilling effects on their children's alcohol use: self-verification, informational conformity, and modeling processes.
This research examined whether self-fulfilling prophecy effects are mediated by self-verification, informational conformity, and modeling processes. The authors examined these mediational processes across multiple time frames with longitudinal data obtained from two samples of mother-child dyads (N-sub-1 = 486; N-sub-2 = 287), with children's alcohol use as the outcome variable. The results provided consistent support for the mediational process of self-verification. In both samples and across several years of adolescence, there was a significant indirect effect of mothers' beliefs on children's alcohol use through children's self-assessed likelihood of drinking alcohol in the future. Comparatively less support was found for informational conformity and modeling processes as mediators of mothers' self-fulfilling effects. The potential for self-fulfilling prophecies to produce long-lasting changes in targets' behavior via self-verification processes are discussed.
Madon
Stephanie
S
Department of Psychology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA. madon@iastate.edu
Guyll
Max
M
Buller
Ashley A
AA
Scherr
Kyle C
KC
Willard
Jennifer
J
Spoth
Richard
R
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D001290:Attitude; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D017008:Negotiating / Q000523:psychology*; D009769:Object Attachment; D011593:Psychology, Social; D012424:Rural Population; D012925:Social Conformity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires