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A Longitudinal Study of the Simultaneous Influence of Mothers’ and Teachers’ Educational Expectations on Low-income Youth’s Academic Achievement

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Abstract

This short-term longitudinal study investigated the simultaneous influences of adults’ (mothers and teachers) educational expectations and youth’s achievement (standardized test scores and teachers’ ratings of academic performance) across a 3-year time span on youth’s performance in school (GPA). Participants were an ethnically diverse sample of 426 low-income urban youth, ages 6 through 16 at T1. Results from cross-lagged and autoregressive path analyses indicated stability in adults’ expectations and youth’s standardized test scores; cross-lagged influences of teachers’, but not mothers’, expectations across time; and effects of youth’s achievement outcomes on adults’ expectations at T2, but not vice versa. Overall, the pattern of findings demonstrate that adults’ educational expectations are dynamic and responsive to how youth are faring in school and to changes in academic performance across time.

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Acknowledgments

The New Hope Child and Family Study was conducted in collaboration with the MacArthur Network on Successful Pathways Through Middle Childhood. The larger program evaluation was conducted by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation under a contract with the New Hope Project, Inc. The five- and eight-year evaluations were funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development award to the University of Texas at Austin (HD36038). For the eight-year evaluation, core support was provided by the R24 center grant from NICHD to the Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. We thank the participating families and children for their time and interest. We also thank Nina Chien for her comments on a previous draft of this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, University of California, Los Angeles, Box 951521, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1521, USA

    Rashmita S. Mistry & Elizabeth S. White

  2. Department of Human Ecology, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA

    Aprile D. Benner

  3. Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Virginia W. Huynh

Authors
  1. Rashmita S. Mistry
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  2. Elizabeth S. White
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rashmita S. Mistry.

Appendix A

Appendix A

Path analysis results for model shown in Fig. 1—Influence of covariates on adult expectations (T1, T2), youth achievement (T1, T2) and youth academic outcomes (T2)

 

Covariates

Program group

Youth gender

Special Ed. status T1

Special Ed. status T2

Type of school T1

Type of school T2

Youth grade

African American

Latino

Maternal education

Mother expectations T1

.02

−.07

−.07

−.12*

−.04

−.02

−.16**

.11+

−.03

.11*

Teacher expectations T1

.02

−.08

−.24***

−.23***

−.06

−.08

−.01

.06

−.03

.20***

Woodcock–Johnson T1

.02

−.04

−.30***

−.27***

−.07

−.12**

−.11*

−.03

.06

.10*

SSRS academic subscale T1

.03

−.09

.04

−.02

−.01

−.17**

−.09

.05

.01

−.11+

Mother expectations T2

.03

−.08+

−.00

−.05

−.06

.01

−.15**

.11+

.10

.02

Teacher expectations T2

−.05

−.03

.08

−.05

−.07+

−.08+

−.02

.08

.09

.04

Woodcock–Johnson T2

−.04

.01

−.06

−.04

.04

−.08*

−.10*

.10*

−.15**

.07

SSRS academic subscale T2

−.07

−.19**

−.04

.03

.09

−.08

.01

.01

−.04

.10

School GPA

−.08

−.03

−.03

.08

.06

.19**

.38***

−.05

−.08

.00

  1. Note: Coefficients for adult expectations (T1) and youth achievement (T1) represent correlation coefficients; Coefficients for adult expectations (T2), youth achievement (T2) and youth GPA (T2) represent standardized beta values. + p < .10, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001

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Mistry, R.S., White, E.S., Benner, A.D. et al. A Longitudinal Study of the Simultaneous Influence of Mothers’ and Teachers’ Educational Expectations on Low-income Youth’s Academic Achievement. J Youth Adolescence 38, 826–838 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-008-9300-0

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