Parental beliefs and expectations concerning the academic competence of learning disabled and nondisabled children

Abstract

The present study investigated the relation between parental beliefs, estimations and expectations and children's competencies with low-SES parents of learning disabled and nondisabled children. Forty-eight mothers who had boys in the third- through the fifth-grade were interviewed in their home: twenty-four mothers of learning disabled children and twenty-four mothers of nondisabled children. The following measures were used to assess parental beliefs, estimations, and expectations: 1) parental ratings of a series of statements that past research has shown negatively affect children's cognitive competence, 2) parental estimates of their children's performance on a series of cognitive tasks that range from Piagetian-type thru more school-related items, and 3) parental reports of the educational and occupational aspirations for their children. The mothers of learning disabled children did not report more traditional, non democratic beliefs regarding child rearing and academic development than parents of nondisabled children. However, they did more strongly believe that their child's school problems are caused by the child's own ability and school successes are caused more by effort. Also, mothers of LD children reported less success estimations for school-related tasks, specifically spelling and reading tasks than mothers of NLD children. The two groups did not differ on their success estimations for the Piagetian- and intelligence-type tasks. The children were shown these same tasks. The LD children were able to complete less of the school-related tasks than the NLD children. However, the two groups did not differ for the other two types of tasks. Generally, the mean number of success estimations was higher in both groups for children in higher grades. Finally, the two groups did not differ overall in their educational and occupational aspirations. The results are discussed in terms of the affect that children's competencies have on parental beliefs, estimations, and expectations.