title: Self-verification as a mediator of mothers' self-fulfilling effects on adolescents' educational attainment.
abstract: This research examined whether self-verification acts as a general mediational process of self-fulfilling prophecies. The authors tested this hypothesis by examining whether self-verification processes mediated self-fulfilling prophecy effects within a different context and with a different belief and a different outcome than has been used in prior research. Results of longitudinal data obtained from mothers and their adolescents (N=332) indicated that mothers' beliefs about their adolescents' educational outcomes had a significant indirect effect on adolescents' academic attainment through adolescents' educational aspirations. This effect, observed over a 6-year span, provided evidence that mothers' self-fulfilling effects occurred, in part, because mothers' false beliefs influenced their adolescents' own educational aspirations, which adolescents then self-verified through their educational attainment. The theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA. kscherr@iastate.edu
authors.forename: Kyle C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Scherr
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Madon
authors.forename: Max
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guyll
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Willard
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Spoth
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D011582:Psychological Theory; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012044:Regression Analysis