杏吧原创

IF YOU feel your life is out of control and you can鈥檛 change it, it might be your mother鈥檚 low expectations that are to blame 鈥� if you鈥檙e a woman.

To investigate whether a mother鈥檚 opinion of her child affects their future success, Eirini Flouri and colleagues from the University of London鈥檚 Institute of Education analysed information from a study of children born in 1970. When the children were aged 10 years, their mothers were asked to predict the age at which their child would leave school. Flouri used this as an indicator of the mother鈥檚 belief in her child鈥檚 capabilities.

She then compared this information with an assessment of the children鈥檚 self-confidence when they were 30.

Controlling for factors such as the children鈥檚 intellectual ability and their parents鈥� wealth, the team found that women鈥檚 sense of control over their lives was strongly linked to their mothers鈥� expectations (British Journal of Educational Psychology, ).

In contrast, the women鈥檚 earnings showed no such link to their mother鈥檚 expectations, and neither did the men鈥檚 self-confidence. However, Flouri points out that belief in a child鈥檚 abilities is 鈥渏ust one aspect鈥� of parenting.