Abstract
Conducted in the framework of the theory of social representations, the study was designed to examine the dimensions in terms of which parents assess their children’s abilities, the ways in which social positions — here, the parents’ education and gender and the child’s gender — organize these assessments, and the ways in which the assessments relate to the estimated school success of the child. The subjects were a nationwide sample of parents (N=938), who were asked to estimate their children’s school success and to assess these children’s abilities. A factor analysis showed the ability assessments to be multidimensional. The parents assessed girls’ cognitive and social abilities to be better than boys’. Academically educated parents drew a more categorical distinction than other parents between cognitive and other abilities, which suggests that they endorse a differential conception of intelligence. A clear congruity of content was observed between the estimations of school success and the assessments of abilities, indicating that different school subjects are associated with different abilities.
Résumé
Le but de cette recherche concernant les représentations sociales, était de trouver les dimensions selon lesquelles les parents évaluent les aptitudes de leurs enfants, comment le niveau d’étude et le sexe des parents aussi bien que le sexe de l’enfant influencent ces évaluations, et enfin d’étudier comment les évaluations des parents sont en rapport avec les évaluations concernant le réussite scolaire des enfants. Les parents interrogés constituent un large échantillon (n=938); on leur a demandé d’estimer la réussite scolaire et les aptitudes de leurs enfants. L’analyse factorielle montre que ces évaluations sont multidimensionnelles. Les parents estiment les capacités cognitives et sociales des filles supérieures à celles des garçons. Les parents ayant une formation académique on fait une distinction plus stricte que les parents moins éduqués entre les capacités intellectuelles et les autres aptitudes, ce qui indique que ces parents ont une conception différenciée de l’intelligence. Nous avons également constaté que l’on associe généralement les différentes matières scolaires à des aptitudes différentes.
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The study was financed by the University of Joensuu and the National Research project “The Effectiveness of the School”, organized by the Academy of Finland.
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Räty, H., Snellman, L. & Vainikainen, A. Parents’ assessments of their children’s abilities. Eur J Psychol Educ 14, 423–437 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03173124
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03173124