Mothers' and Children's Educational Expectations and School Enrollment: Discrepancy and Changes.

How much would mothers' educational expectations influence children's actual school attainment in the circumstance of poverty? This study explores the impact of mothers' educational expectations on children's schooling by focusing on the discrepancy in expectations between mothers and children, and changes in children's own expectations. I analyze the longitudinal data, Gansu Survey of Children and Family (GSCF), from rural Gansu, China from 2000 to 2007. The analysis reveals that mother-child discrepancy in educational expectations is substantial, so are changes in children's own expectations over time. Having mothers holding different expectations from their children at early point of time has strong influence on how children change their expectations. When mothers holding higher expectations, their children are more likely to stay in school, even in cases of children who are from impoverished families and those who are low achievers. At the same time, changes in children's own expectations are strong predictors of their later enrollment. The findings point to the importance of incorporating parent-child difference in expectations and changes in children's own expectations over time into studies in order to have a better understanding of the relations between educational expectations and school attainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Conference Papers - American Sociological Association is the property of American Sociological Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)