Do Parents' Educational Expectations in Adolescence Predict Adult Life Satisfaction?

• Author: Ying Zhang,Woosang Hwang,Yue Zhang,Eunjoo Jung
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12323
• Date: 01 October 2018
• Published date: 01 October 2018

E J, W H, Y Z,  Y Z Syracuse University

Do Parents’ Educational Expectations

in Adolescence Predict Adult Life Satisfaction?

Objective: To examine the extent to which par-

ents’ educational expectations for adolescents

are associated with children’s life satisfaction in

adulthood and whether that association is medi-

ated by adolescents’ individual characteristics.

Background: Life satisfaction is acknowledged

to be an important goal in a child’s devel-

opmental path. However, less is known about

the long-term inuence of parental expectations

on adolescents’ positive life outcomes and how

functioning in adolescents aside from parental

expectations is related to these long-term asso-

ciations.

Method: Using data from the 2 cohorts of high

school students and their parents who partic-

ipated in the Longitudinal Study of American

Youth from 1991 to 2010 (N=2,289), direct

and indirect paths from parental expectations to

adulthood life satisfaction were tested within the

structural equation modeling framework.

Results: Parents’ higher educational expecta-

tions for adolescents were positively related

to their children’s life satisfaction 2 decades

later via children’s expectations, self-esteem,

and educational attainment. Parents’ expecta-

tions were associated with higher self-esteem

in the adolescent years through adolescents’

expectations, which ultimately predicted adoles-

cents’ life satisfaction as adults.

Department of Human Development and Family Science,

Syracuse University, 144 White Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244

(ejung03@syr.edu).

Key Words: adolescent self-esteem, child educational expec-

tations, educational attainment, life satisfaction, parental

expectations.

Conclusion: The level of expectations parents

have for their children are related to their

adolescents’ life satisfaction 2 decades later,

perhaps because expectations are associated

with adolescents’ educational attainment and

self-esteem.

Implications: Family practitioners and educa-

tors are encouragedto educate adolescents’ par-

ents about the link between their educational

expectations and long-term educational attain-

ment and life satisfaction for their children in

adulthood.

Scholars have long sought to understand how

parents’ educational expectations—that is,

expectations of their children’s educational

attainment (Briley, Harden, & Tucker-Drob,

2014), hereafter referred to simply as expecta-

tions—play a role in their children’s educational

success. Much research in this area has focused

on the inuence of parents’ expectations on

children’s own educational expectations and

showed that children tend to build their own

expectations to match their parents’ (Entwisle &

Hayduk, 1978; Schneider, Keesler, & Morlock,

2010). Adolescent children with parents who

have higher expectations often show higher

expectations themselves. Parents’ expectations

also have been shown to havea positive relation-

ship with children’s school outcomes (Sciarra

& Ambrosino, 2011), including over and above

the effect of socioeconomic status or race and

ethnicity (Froiland & Davison, 2014). This

line of inquiry is well established, revealing

key processes in parents’ inuence in families

that appear to affect children’s educational

552 Family Relations 67 (October 2018): 552–566

DOI:10.1111/fare.12323