Parents’ estimates of their own and their children's multiple intelligences

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that when parents estimate their own and their children's overall IQ (general intelligence), fathers estimate their own scores significantly higher than mothers estimate their own scores, and both parents estimate their sons’ IQ higher than their daughters’ (Furnham & Gasson, 1998). This study looks at differences in parental estimation of children's multiple intelligences based on Gardner's (1983) seven‐dimensional model. In all, 112 parents estimated their own and their sons’ and daughters’ ability on each of seven specific dimensions (verbal, mathematical, spatial, musical, body‐kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal). As before, males (fathers) rated themselves as more intelligent on mathematical and spatial intelligence than females (mothers) rated themselves on these intelligences. Results indicated that differences in perception of children's intelligence lay only in the areas of mathematical and spatial intelligence, which may be conflated with lay concepts of overall intelligence. Overall, mothers rated their children higher on mathematical and spatial intelligence than did fathers, and both parents indicated that they thought their sons more numerate than their daughters. This result was stronger for the first child than for the second, suggesting the cultural significance attached to first‐born sons (primogeniture).