Self-views of African-American Youth are Related to the Gender Stereotypes and Ability Attributions of Their Parents

Abstract

We examined relations among African-American parents' (N = 196) stereotypes about gender differences in mathematics, science, and reading performance, parents' attributions about their children's academic successes and failures, and their seventh and eighth grade children's academic self-views (domain-specific ability attributions and self-concept). Parents' stereotypes about gender differences in abilities were related to their ability attributions for their children's successes and failures within academic domains. Parents' attributions, in turn, were related to children's attributions, particularly among girls. Parents' attributions of literacy failures to lack of ability were negatively related to boys' literacy self-concepts, and parents' ability attributions for success in math/science were positively related to girls' math/science self-concepts. The influences of parents' beliefs on young adolescents' identity beliefs are discussed.