Do self-fulfilling prophecies accumulate, dissipate, or remain stable over time?

Exploring the Nature of Teachers' Math-Gender Stereotypes: The Math-Gender Misconception Questionnaire

Stereotypes of girls having weaker mathematical abilities than boys (math-gender stereotypes) are one factor reducing women's representation in mathematics. Teachers, as powerful socializers, often hold math-gender stereotypes. Reducing math-gender stereotypes in (student) teachers thus may foster women's representation in mathematics. Yet knowing the stereotypes' underlying assumptions is crucial to reducing it. Do math-gender stereotypes reflect elaborate, disproven theories about gender differences in math, meaning math-gender misconceptions? And if so, which math-gender misconceptions are behind math-gender stereotypes? This is the focus of the present research. The relevant literature implies the existence of three distinct misconceptions: (1) empathizing-systemizing ("As girls think rather empathically and boys think rather systematically, boys are on average more talented in math than girls"), (2) girls' compensation ("To achieve equally good grades in mathematics, boys have to make less effort because they are more talented than girls are"), and (3) girls' non-compensability ("Despite their on average stronger effort, girls are normally less proficient in math than boys"). We assessed these misconceptions in a student teacher sample (N = 303) using our newly developed Math-Gender Misconceptions Questionnaire. Our results offer support for the expected three-factor structure of math-gender misconceptions. All three math-gender misconceptions showed good to acceptable scale reliabilities. On average, preservice teachers did not hold (strong) math-gender misconceptions. But a subgroup of 48.2% of preservice teachers held at least one of the three misconceptions. The empathizing-systemizing misconception was the most prevalent (32.0%) among the three misconceptions. Descriptively, endorsing the math-gender stereotype correlated most strongly with the empathizing-systemizing (r = 0.43) and the girls' compensation misconception (r = 0.44). This may indicate that especially these two misconceptions partly underlie math-gender stereotypes. As a consequence, refutation instructions designed to reduce these misconceptions may be a promising method to weaken math-gender stereotypes. Further research is needed to investigate to what degree reducing the present misconceptions is related to reducing math-gender stereotypes. Hence, this study is the first one of a planned series of studies on the relation between math-gender misconceptions and math-gender stereotypes.

Teacher (Mis)Perceptions of Preschoolers' Academic Skills: Predictors and Associations With Longitudinal Outcomes

Preschool teachers have important impacts on children's academic outcomes, and teachers' misperceptions of children's academic skills could have negative consequences, particularly for low-income preschoolers. This study utilized data gathered from 123 preschool teachers and their 760 preschoolers from 70 low-income, racially diverse centers. Hierarchical linear modeling was utilized to account for the nested data structure. Even after controlling for children's actual academic skill, older children, children with stronger social skills, and children with fewer inattentive symptoms were perceived to have stronger academic abilities. Contrary to hypotheses, preschoolers with more behavior problems were perceived by teachers to have significantly better pre-academic abilities than they actually had. Teachers' perceptions were not associated with child gender or child race/ethnicity. Although considerable variability was due to teacher-level characteristics, child characteristics explained 42% of the variability in teachers' perceptions about children's language and pre-literacy ability and 41% of the variability in teachers' perceptions about mathability. Notably, these perceptions appear to have important impacts over time. Controlling for child baseline academic skill and child characteristics, teacher perceptions early in the preschool year were significantly associated with child academic outcomes during the spring for both language and pre-literacy and math. Study implications with regard to the achievement gap are discussed.

An independent randomized clinical trial of multisystemic therapy with non-court-referred adolescents with serious conduct problems

OBJECTIVE

Adolescent conduct problems exact serious social as well as personal costs, and effective treatments are essential. One of the most widely disseminated and effective programs for the treatment of serious conduct problems in adolescents is Multisystemic Therapy (MST). However, most evaluations of MST have involved the developers of MST. The purpose of the present study was to conduct an independent evaluation of MST, with non-court-referred adolescents with conduct problems.

METHOD

Participants were 164 adolescents ages 11-18 years who were recruited from self-contained behavior intervention classrooms in public schools. Adolescents and their families were randomly assigned to receive MST or services as usual. Outcome measures assessed conduct problems, school functioning, and court records of criminal behavior. Participants were followed for 18 months after baseline using parent, adolescent, and teacher reports; arrest data were collected for 2.5 years postbaseline.

RESULTS

Two of 4 primary outcome measures focused on externalizing problems showed significant treatment effects favoring MST. Several secondary and intervention targets pertaining to family functioning and parent psychopathology showed positive effects of MST, and no negative effects were identified.

CONCLUSIONS

Results provide some further support for the effectiveness of MST, although smaller effect sizes than previous studies also suggest the complexity of successful dissemination, particularly to non-court-referred populations.

The Role Of The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy In Young Adolescents' Responsiveness To A Substance Use Prevention Program

This research examined whether naturally-occurring self-fulfilling prophecies influenced adolescents' responsiveness to a substance use prevention program. The authors addressed this issue with a unique methodological approach that was designed to enhance the internal validity of research on naturally-occurring self-fulfilling prophecies by experimentally controlling for prediction without influence. Participants were 321 families who were assigned to an adolescent substance use prevention program that either did or did not systematically involve parents. Results showed that parents' perceptions about the value of involving parents in adolescent substance use prevention predicted adolescents' alcohol use more strongly among families assigned to the prevention program that systematically involved parents than to the one that did not. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Self-verification as a mediator of mothers' self-fulfilling effects on adolescents' educational attainment

This research examined whether self-verification acts as a general mediational process of self-fulfilling prophecies. The authors tested this hypothesis by examining whether self-verification processes mediated self-fulfilling prophecy effects within a different context and with a different belief and a different outcome than has been used in prior research. Results of longitudinal data obtained from mothers and their adolescents (N=332) indicated that mothers' beliefs about their adolescents' educational outcomes had a significant indirect effect on adolescents' academic attainment through adolescents' educational aspirations. This effect, observed over a 6-year span, provided evidence that mothers' self-fulfilling effects occurred, in part, because mothers' false beliefs influenced their adolescents' own educational aspirations, which adolescents then self-verified through their educational attainment. The theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.

A longitudinal study of the simultaneous influence of mothers' and teachers' educational expectations on low-income youth's academic achievement

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.