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Address correspondence to: Melody Almroth, M.P.H., Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Tomtebodavägen 18A, 17177 Stockholm, Sweden.
Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, SwedenCentre for Epidemiology and Community Medicine (CES), Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden
Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, SwedenCentre for Epidemiology and Community Medicine (CES), Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden
We investigated parental academic expectations and their agreement with child expectations as predictors of offspring's mental health. We additionally analyzed whether these associations were moderated by parent–child relationship factors and whether similar associations were found when using aspirations as the predictor.
Methods
Dyads of parents and children (aged 13 years) in Sweden answered three annual surveys asking how far in education parents (or their children) expected to go (respondents' wave 1: N = 3,383, wave 2: N = 3,096, wave 3: N = 2,905). Children's mental health was measured using the internalizing and externalizing subscales of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Multilevel logistic models for repeated measures were built to analyze the associations between parental expectations or the concordance of parent and child expectations and child's high internalizing (>9) or externalizing (>11) score in waves 2 and 3.
Results
Parental expectations lower than university were associated with an increased odds of offspring's high externalizing score (adjusted odds ratio: 1.49, 95% confidence interval: 1.11–2.01). The odds of high externalizing score were increased among adolescents when either the parent's or own expectations were lower than university compared with the situation where both expected a university education; there was a more than twofold increased odds when both had low expectations (odds ratio: 2.32, 95% confidence interval: 1.55–3.48). No significant associations were found with internalizing problems. There was some evidence of moderation according to democratic parenting. All associations were similar when considering academic aspirations.
Conclusions
Low academic expectations among parents and their children may negatively impact on children's externalizing symptoms.
This study found that when dyads of parents and children both had low expectations, the children were more likely to experience externalizing symptoms. It may be important to investigate whether pedagogic strategies may increase parents and children's positive expectations and whether this may prevent or alleviate students' behavioral problems.
Young people today may experience greater uncertainty about their futures compared with previous generations. Competition in the labor market has increased in many Western countries [
Parallel to these trends, the Swedish school system has undergone profound changes during the last three decades. While Swedish education is relatively egalitarian, without university tuition fees and nearly 90% completing noncompulsory upper-secondary school [
], several reforms regarding the decentralization and privatization of the school system have resulted in increased competition among students and schools and larger differences in academic results among schools [
]. Sweden has concurrently witnessed a sharp decrease in academic performance and more frequent truancy and behavioral problems compared with other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries [
]. Because high parental expectations for their children's future education and careers have been found to be related to academic performance and engagement [
Parental academic expectations refer to how far parents believe their child will go in education, whereas parental aspirations refer to how far parents want their child to go. Although the concepts are closely related and often used interchangeably, they are not always in agreement [
]. The two concepts are theoretically different in that expectations are often based on a realistic appraisal of existing ability and socioeconomic status, whereas aspirations tend to remain stable despite possibly unfavorable circumstances [
], but the relationship between parental expectations and child mental health is unclear. On the one hand, it has been hypothesized that children may feel stressed about meeting their parents' high expectations, which may increase their risk of internalizing problems [
]; on the other hand, low parental expectations could indicate lack of a supportive structure in the family, which may lead to externalizing problems. Previous research investigating parental expectations in relation to children's own expectations and mental health is inconclusive.
Several studies found high parental expectations [
] are associated with worse mental health. However, two studies found that high parental expectations or aspirations were associated with lower depression and better self-concept among children [
]. Other studies found more nuanced mechanisms in these associations. For example, parental criticism rather than expectations led to negative mental health outcomes [
Distinguishing self-oriented perfectionism-striving and self-oriented perfectionism-critical in school-aged children: Divergent patterns of perceived parenting, personal affect and school performance.
]. Thus, the quality of the parent–child relationship should be considered when assessing the link between parental expectations and child mental health, as has been found in a previous Chinese study [
]. Similarly, an authoritative parenting style, defined by high demands and responsiveness, has previously been found to be related to positive mental health throughout the life course [
The impact of authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles on children's later mental health in Japan: Focusing on parent and child gender.
]. This may imply that a closer and more communicative parent/child relationship may alleviate some of the potential stress of high parental academic expectations and vice versa.
Although parents' expectations have been found to predict their children's expectations [
], parents and children may not agree on what constitutes realistic or appealing educational goals. Few studies have considered the discordance between parent and child academic expectations, and in these investigations, this discrepancy was associated with poor child mental health [
]. These studies mostly focused on internalizing problems without giving attention to externalizing problems. Therefore, they would not capture behavioral problems, which may arise from disagreement of expectations and related conflict. These studies were conducted in the United States, and contextual factors such as tuition costs may be important in understanding the relationship between mutual parent–child academic expectations and child's mental health.
The aims of this study were to investigate (1) the longitudinal association between parents' academic expectations for their children and their children's internalizing and externalizing mental health problems and (2) whether discordance between parental and child expectations is associated with these mental health outcomes. In addition, we analyzed whether the quality of the parent–child relationship, specifically parental warmth and democratic parenting, moderates the relationship between parental expectations and child mental health and whether the patterns of association with mental health are different when considering aspirations rather than expectations.
Methods
Study population and design
We studied adolescents participating in a longitudinal study of mental health and school factors in Sweden (Kunskap om Ungas Psykiska Ohälsa och Lärande). A detailed description of the methods of the study has previously been published [
]. Briefly, 101 schools joined the study in 2013. From these schools, during two subsequent school years, the parents of 3,959 seventh-grade students (aged 13 years) gave informed consent for participation in the study. Data were collected through questionnaires given to adolescents and their parents annually; 3,424 dyads of parents and children completed the questionnaire at wave 2 or 3. Around 81% of the parental questionnaires were answered by the mother, 19% by the father, and <1% by another parent/guardian. The flowchart of study participation, including complete parent/child pairs in each wave, is presented in Figure 1.
This study was approved by the Stockholm Ethics Review Board (reference numbers: 2012/1904-31/1 and 2016/1280-32).
Measures
Predictors
Parental academic expectations and aspirations at wave 2 and 3 were derived by asking the parents or guardians how far they would like their child to go in school (aspirations) and how far they think their child will go in school (expectations). The response alternatives were “I do not know,” “upper-secondary–vocational track,” “upper-secondary–theoretical track,” or “university”; children were asked the same questions. For the primary analysis, answers were categorized as “high” if university was indicated, and “low” otherwise. In supplementary analyses, we considered the original categories of these variables. The concordance between parent and child expectations was derived by categorizing the binary expectations responses into four mutually exclusive categories, that is, “high expectations in both parent and child,” “high parent but low child expectations,” “low parent but high child expectations,” and “low expectations in both parent and child.” The same categories were derived for aspirations.
Outcomes
Internalizing and externalizing problems at waves 2 and 3 were measured using 20 items of the child-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire [
]. The scale consists of an internalizing and externalizing subscale where the internalizing scale combines aspects of emotional and peer problems, and the externalizing scale encompasses aspects of hyperactivity and conduct problems [
When to use broader internalising and externalising subscales instead of the hypothesised five subscales on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): Data from British parents, teachers and children.
]. The Cronbach's alpha was .73 for the internalizing and .77 for the externalizing subscales at wave 2. Because these scores were not normally distributed and we could not normalize them, we used the recommended cutoff points of 9 for the internalizing and 11 for the externalizing scale, indicating a high/very high score [
When to use broader internalising and externalising subscales instead of the hypothesised five subscales on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): Data from British parents, teachers and children.
Warmth of the parent–child relationship was assessed using the Parental Warmth Scale. Children reported how often their mother and father each exhibit gestures, which indicate care, pride, and love using six questions with three response alternatives [
]. Democratic parenting was assessed using the child-reported Democratic Parenting Scale, consisting of three questions regarding how much parents listen and respect the child's opinions on a five-point scale [
]. Scores for both scales were assessed at waves 2 and 3 and calculated as a mean of the items where a higher score indicates a warmer or more democratic relationship. The wave 2 Cronbach alphas were .88 and .87, respectively.
Covariates
The child's sex was obtained through a digit of the child's national personal identification number assigned at birth or immigration indicating their sex. Living arrangement was assessed from the child's questionnaire and treated as living with “both parents” versus “one or neither parent” in wave 1. In the surveys conducted in the eighth grade, children retrospectively reported their seventh-grade grades in Swedish, English, and Math. Numeric values were assigned to each letter grade and added together where a higher score indicated a better academic performance. Parental education, assessed from the parents' questionnaire in wave 1, was categorized as “at least one parent with a university education” versus “neither parent with a university education.” Parental birth country, assessed the same way, was categorized as “both parents born in Sweden” versus “at least one parent born outside of Sweden.” The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire internalizing and externalizing scores at wave 1 were kept in continuous form.
Statistical analysis
We compared baseline characteristics of groups constituted based on parental and child expectations using chi-square tests for categorical variables and Kruskal–Wallis tests for continuous variables. We also investigated polychoric or Spearman's rank correlations for all studied variables.
We analyzed the associations between expectations or their concordance and mental health using data from the second and third waves (eighth and ninth grades), adjusting for potential confounders during the first wave (seventh grade) using the GLIMMIX procedure in SAS Enterprise Guide 7.1 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC), a longitudinal analysis method that may account for the clustering of the repeated measurements within individuals. We first built three-level models accounting for clustering at the individual and school levels and compared these to two-level models only accounting for within-individual clustering. Model test statistics (−2 log likelihood) and point estimates were nearly identical when comparing these models. Thus, the two-level logistic models are presented, ignoring the clustering at the school level.
To best use all available information, we used pairwise deletion (i.e., individuals with missing information in one or more variables were only excluded from analyses using those particular variables). Individuals could contribute information at one or more time points. Thus, the minimum requirement for a participant to be included in an analysis would be complete information on exposure and outcome at either wave 2 or 3. The maximum number of participants included in a model was 3,396, and the minimum 2,826.
In the main analysis, we built models investigating the relationship between parental expectations treated as a binary variable and the likelihood of a high/very high internalizing or externalizing score at waves 2 and 3. Similar models were built to investigate the relationship between the concordance of parent and child expectations and internalizing and externalizing symptoms. We ran unadjusted models (Model 1), and models adjusted for baseline internalizing and externalizing scores, sex of the child, living arrangement, parents' birth country, parents' education, and child's academic grades (Model 2). We selected these potential confounders a priori because gender, socioeconomic status, immigrant status, living in a single-parent home, and academic achievement have been found to be associated with both academic expectations [
] but do not lie on the causal pathway between the two, particularly because we measured these factors at an earlier time point than the predictors and outcomes.
To investigate whether the association between parental expectations and mental health differ by parental relationship factors (parental warmth and democratic parenting), gender, parental education, and parents' birth country, we performed stratified analyses and models using an interaction term between the predictor and the hypothesized moderator. To analyze whether the patterns of association are different when considering aspirations rather than expectations, we conducted supplementary analyses with aspirations as the predictor.
To test the robustness of our findings, we performed sensitivity analyses. First, we investigated the validity of our categorization of the parental expectations and aspirations variables by re-running these models using their original categorization. Second, to investigate the influence of missing data on our findings, we repeated the analysis concerning parental expectations and mental health using multiple imputed datasets. Third, to better understand the direction of association between expectations and mental health, we repeated our analyses restricting the sample to those without a high/very high internalizing or externalizing score at baseline, thus allowing for the analysis of incident cases of high score during the follow-up period and a better understanding of causality.
Results
Parental and child expectations at baseline were higher for girls, when at least one parent was born outside of Sweden, when at least one parent had university education, and when parent and child aspirations were high. Parental expectations were higher when the child lived with both parents. Mean academic grades, baseline parental warmth, and democratic parenting were higher, and child internalizing and externalizing scores were lower when parents and children had high expectations (Table 1). Table S1 shows the correlation of all variables.
Table 1Baseline characteristics of the adolescent population according to baseline parental and child expectations
There were weak associations between parental expectations and child's internalizing problems, but low parental expectations were associated with increased odds of high/very high externalizing symptoms (odds ratio: 1.49, 95% confidence interval: 1.11–2.01; Table 2).
Table 2ORs and 95% CIs for mental health problems according to parental academic expectations
Model 2 is adjusted for baseline internalizing and externalizing score, sex of the child, living arrangement, parents' birth country, parents' education, and child's academic grades.
SDQ internalizing score ≥9
High
287/2,096 (14)
319/2,004 (16)
1
1
Low
158/938 (17)
160/842 (19)
1.25 (1.05–1.48)
1.11 (.88–1.40)
SDQ externalizing score ≥11
High
121/2,092 (6)
116/2,005 (6)
1
1
Low
129/939 (14)
115/842 (14)
2.49 (2.01–3.08)
1.49 (1.11–2.01)
Events = total number of high scores for each outcome measure; N = number in each category; OR = odds ratio; CI = confidence intervals; SDQ = Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire.
a Model 1 is unadjusted.
b Model 2 is adjusted for baseline internalizing and externalizing score, sex of the child, living arrangement, parents' birth country, parents' education, and child's academic grades.
Concordance of parent and child expectations showed no significant association with internalizing symptoms (Table 3). Compared with the situation where both parent and child had high expectations, all other combinations of concordance/discordance were associated with an increased odds of high/very high externalizing symptoms.
Table 3ORs and 95% CIs for mental health problems according to parent and child concordance of academic expectations
Model 2 is adjusted for baseline internalizing and externalizing score, sex of the child, living arrangement, parents' birth country, parents' education, and child's academic grades.
SDQ internalizing score ≥9
High/high
120/1,050 (11)
176/1,254 (14)
1
1
High/low
159/988 (16)
128/694 (18)
1.38 (1.13–1.69)
1.24 (.98–1.58)
Low/high
19/106 (18)
23/107 (22)
1.66 (1.10–2.49)
1.36 (.85–2.18)
Low/low
138/810 (17)
131/711 (18)
1.45 (1.18–1.78)
1.24 (.94–1.65)
SDQ externalizing score ≥11
High/high
34/1,049 (3)
41/1,255 (3)
1
1
High/low
80/986 (8)
69/694 (10)
2.71 (2.00–3.66)
2.07 (1.42–3.01)
Low/high
6/106 (6)
13/107 (12)
2.94 (1.67–5.16)
2.42 (1.27–4.61)
Low/low
118/811 (15)
98/711 (14)
4.57 (3.41–6.12)
2.32 (1.55–3.48)
Events = total number of high scores for each outcome measure; N=number in each category; OR = odds ratio; CI = confidence interval; SDQ= Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire.
a Model 1 is unadjusted.
b Model 2 is adjusted for baseline internalizing and externalizing score, sex of the child, living arrangement, parents' birth country, parents' education, and child's academic grades.
The relationship between parental expectations and externalizing symptoms appeared stronger among those with high democratic parenting, but there was no evidence of moderation by parental warmth (Table S2). No strong evidence of moderating effects was found according to gender, parents' education, or birth country (not shown). Analyses using aspirations showed similar patterns of association (S3 and S4).
Using the original categorizations of the expectations and aspirations variables revealed similar patterns of association with those in the primary analysis, albeit with lower statistical power (S5 and S6). The results for child externalizing problems were consistent after excluding those with a high/very high externalizing or internalizing score at baseline. Results using multiple imputation showed similar estimates and standard errors compared with the nonimputed sample (not shown).
Discussion
In this large cohort of Swedish adolescents, low parental academic expectations were associated with increased odds of high externalizing symptoms. Furthermore, parent and child discordance of expectations, as well as an agreement in expecting an education lower than university, were associated with increased odds of high externalizing symptoms compared with the case where both the parent and child expected a university education. There was evidence that the relationship between parental expectations and externalizing problems was moderated by democratic parenting but not parental warmth. Finally, patterns of associations were similar when considering aspirations.
Two previous longitudinal studies presented findings partially in line with our own. One US study found that student's perceptions of their parents' high academic aspirations predicted fewer depressive symptoms, but no relationship was found with conduct problems [
]. Other studies presented results inconsistent with ours. For example, several found high parental expectations or emphasis on achievement to be detrimental to youth mental health [
]. The focus of these studies was on internalizing problems, most were qualitative or cross-sectional, and all used child-reported measures of parental expectations, which may reflect other aspects of the parent–child relationship. The few studies investigating parent and child discordance of aspirations found this to be related to worse child well-being [
], a construct that may represent perceived pressure rather than parental aspirations.
Our results do not support the hypothesis that high parental expectations or discordance of parent and child expectations are related to an increased likelihood of internalizing symptoms. The encouragement of academic success and academic demand have been said to be opposite ends of a spectrum with opposing relationships with mental health [
]. It is possible that it is not expectations in themselves, which predict internalizing problems, but rather academic demand, or ways of communicating these expectations. However, the lack of moderation by parental warmth suggests that this was not necessarily an important mechanism in our study.
The lack of a meaningful difference between expectations and aspirations with regards to mental health and the high correlation between the two measures indicate that they were not necessarily measuring different constructs in this sample. The financial accessibility of higher education in Sweden may partially explain this lack of discrepancy.
Our finding that low academic expectations among parents, whether or not these matched their children, are related to the occurrence of externalizing problems is a novel one. One possible explanation is that high parental expectations may result in strengthened support and encouragement in school, which may have a positive influence on the child's behavior.
Recent changes in the Swedish school system have led to a student-centered approach to learning, with adolescents bearing an increased responsibility for their own learning, whereas teachers are seen as facilitators rather than leaders of this process [
]. Furthermore, some parents may not have adapted to this system and may not understand the importance of their children's responsibility toward their own education. Thus, it may not be clear for all involved actors which party is responsible for the students' education [
] and may be particularly detrimental for students who require a high degree of structure and organization in their education (e.g., those with a tendency toward hyperactivity and behavioral problems). This explanation is in line with our finding that the combination of low expectations and high democratic parenting, which may represent a less structured parenting style, appears most predictive of children's externalizing problems.
Although we adjusted for children's baseline mental health scores and grades and performed additional analyses excluding those with a high/very high externalizing score at baseline, it is possible that emerging symptoms, not detected at baseline, lowered parental expectations; thus reverse causation may have contributed to our findings. One study found that children's behavior influenced parental expectations more than their actual achievements [
]. These expectations, in turn, predicted children's own expectations and academic performance, indicating a complicated interplay between expectations and behavioral problems. Accordingly, Coercion Theory suggests that conduct disorders are often the result of ongoing reinforcement of negative behaviors, which form a negative feedback loop [
]. This negative reinforcement could result in lowered expectations from parents and children, and further exacerbation of externalizing problems.
Our results indicate that parents' and children's shared high expectations are associated with the most positive mental health outcomes for the child. This agreement on high academic expectations may represent other unmeasured factors and family processes such as shared values toward education and positive future prospects. Self-Determination Theory indicates that external demands can be internalized and result in intrinsic motivation [
]. Thus, the children in this group may have internalized the goals put forth by their parents, which has positive implications for their mental health.
This study had several limitations. First, the sample recruited in the Kunskap om Ungas Psykiska Ohälsa och Lärande study is somewhat selected, as children from intact families with well-educated parents born in Sweden are overrepresented [
]. Requiring information from two informants resulted in further selection, which may limit the generalizability of our findings. However, stratified analyses according to parental education and birth country did not indicate obvious differences in associations. Second, our measures of aspirations and expectations did not explicitly capture academic demand or pressure from the parents; therefore, we may have overlooked important aspects of parent–child communication about future goals and demands. Similarly, these measures considered university as one level of education rather than specifying undergraduate or postgraduate level and may have failed to specifically study those with the highest expectations. Third, despite our large sample size, the power in some subanalyses may have been limited to detect modest effects (e.g., the category of parent low with child high expectations was very small). Fourth, despite the longitudinal design, the data did not follow finer insights on the time of occurrence of processes and events, thus preventing a complete investigation of the directionality of the associations. The possibility that the relationships under study are truly bi-directional should be kept in mind. Finally, we cannot rule out confounding because of unmeasured common causes of parental expectations and child's mental health such as parental mental health. Adjusting for living arrangement and parental education may have provided partial, but certainly not complete control for this or other related factors.
We found that parents and dyads of parents and children having expectations below university level were more likely to witness child externalizing symptoms compared with parents with high expectations and dyads of parents and children sharing high expectations. This finding deserves attention in light of the deleterious effect externalizing behavioral problems might have on academic achievement and later mental health. Particularly, it may be important for future research to identify whether pedagogic strategies may increase parents and students' positive expectations and the communication around them, with the potential to prevent or alleviate the course of mental health problems in students.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Kunskap om Ungas Psykiska Ohälsa och Lärande team and the schools and families participating in the Kunskap om Ungas Psykiska Ohälsa och Lärande study who make our research possible.
Funding Sources
This work is supported by a grant (nr 259-2012-48) containing contributions from the Swedish Research Council Formas, and The Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare.
Distinguishing self-oriented perfectionism-striving and self-oriented perfectionism-critical in school-aged children: Divergent patterns of perceived parenting, personal affect and school performance.
The impact of authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles on children's later mental health in Japan: Focusing on parent and child gender.
When to use broader internalising and externalising subscales instead of the hypothesised five subscales on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): Data from British parents, teachers and children.
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