Parental Aspirations for Children and Children's Aspirations: A Longitudinal Study of Educational and Career Aspirations among Hyperactive and

A study investigated the relationships between parent aspirations for their children and their children's later aspirations and high school completion. Data were obtained from a longitudinal study called "Hyperactivity-Learning Behavior Disorders Project." Subjects were 201 students in grades 1-3 who were later interviewed in junior high school and students who were in grades 4-6 at the time of parent interviews and who were interviewed again in grades 11-12. Among the subjects was a group of children with behavior problems who were diagnosed and treated for hyperactivity. The following were among the findings: (1) parents use academic evaluations of their children to form educational but not career aspirations for their children; (2) neither parents ' careers nor educational aspirations for their children were related to their children's levels of educational aspirations; (3) parents ' evaluation of students' academic confidence and students ' educational aspirations predicte