Cross-Lagged Relationships Between Academic Achievement and Perceived Parental Educational Expectations

Cross-lagged relationships between academic achievement and perceived parental educational expectations were examined by using panel data from 5,312 students from the National Educational Longitudinal Study from when they were in Grades 8, 10, and 12. Three hypotheses were tested: (1) academic achievement would precede perceptions of parents' expectations, (2) perceptions of parents' expectations would precede academic achievement, and (3) academic achievement and perceptions of parents' expectations would have reciprocal effects on each other. Structural equation modeling with latent variables indicated that students' academic achievement preceded their perceptions of their parents' educational expectations for them.