The Canyon

Parents' Expectations Affect Kids' Drug Choices

If you think they’ll try it or you think they won’t, you’re right. The expectations we place on our children — the “voice of reason” that must be constantly repeated over and over again to relay simple acts of etiquette and morality –- really does sink in… eventually.

As adults, the inner dialogue we continually replay in our heads when no one else is looking comes directly from the people who influenced us the most in our childhood. These personal beliefs encompass more than just how we should dress or how successful we need to be in life. The entire fabric of our conscience is woven by millions of pieces of unconscious communications that frame the very essence of our personality.

Self Fulfilling Effects on Children’s Alcohol Use

Stephanie Madon, associate professor of psychology at Iowa State University, and lead author of a new study, elaborates on her team’s findings. “When mothers overestimated their teens’ future use of alcohol, the teens developed the self-view that they were likely to drink alcohol in the future, which ultimately led them to drink more.”

In previous studies, the team discovered that “mothers’ beliefs about their teen’s future use of alcohol were about 50 percent correct and 50 percent incorrect, and that the incorrect portion of mothers’ beliefs created a self-fulfilling prophecy — teens behaved like their mothers had incorrectly expected them to,” says Madon.

Expectations Influence a Desired Outcome

Self-fulfilling prophecies are, in essence, internal motivations to prove what one believes to be true about one’s self. Parental beliefs about their children are strongly linked to the child’s view of their own selves, creating an overwhelming desire to perform in the role that has been assigned to them.

“When we believe something — even if we’re wrong — when we believe it’s true, we act as though it is,” Madon explains. “And sometimes when you act as though something’s true, your behaviors will cause the belief to become true.

“So I think the moral here is to help children develop positive and pro-social self-concepts about themselves, because children are likely to make choices that match how they view themselves.”

Tell Us: Have you seen evidence of high or low expectations like these influencing behaviors in your own family? What about in school or at work?

Tags: drug addiction prevention, family drug addiction, kids drug addiction

If you like this post subscribe to the feed or subscribe by Email

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 4th, 2008 at 9:15 am in Friends and Family, Society and Addiction