Theoretical grounding
Eccles expectancy-value model postualtes (Eccles, 1983, 2007; Eccles & Harold, 1993; Eccles & Wigfield, 2002) that parents’ values and beliefs predict their child’s perceptions in a nmuber of important areas. Gniewosz and Noack (2012) believe that parents’ academic values about school predict their child’s perceptions of these values. This study examines their hypothesis by analyzing the same family processes from the mothers’ and daughters’ perspectives and determining the result on achievement.
Research questions
1. How do daughters react to their mother’s pressure?
2. Does a mother’s support predict her daughter’s expectations?
3. Do daughters accurately perceive their mother’s support?
4. How do daughters react when their mothers help?
5. How do daughters perceive their mother’s supervision, and the press for literacy?
Methodology
The data source included mother-daughter dyads of 472 European high school students (134 German, 337 Cypriot) and 260 Asian 5th–grade students (97 Thai, 163 Taiwanese). We used Principal Component Analyses to derive 12 factor/components and employed them as independent variables with academic achievement using PLS-SEM methodology.
Main results
Europe
1. European high school girls significantly disagreed with the support offered by their mothers.
2. Daughters with lower GPAs trigger their mother’s dissatisfaction and subsequent pressure. The girls accurately perceivethis pressure, but it is dysfunctional because it is associated with significantly lower achievement.
Asia
1. A mother’s support is a significant predictor for her daughter’s perception of her expectations, and this significantlyaffects’ achievement.
2. SES significantly predicts a mother’s family processes.
Conclusion
The dissatisfaction factor is a measure of underachievement. Mothers that get high scores on this factor attribute their child’s underperformance to be due to either a lack of motivation, a degree of disorganization, or a lack of effort.