Self-verification as a mediator of mothers' self-fulfilling effects on adolescents' educational attainment

This research examined whether self-verification acts as a general mediational process of self-fulfilling prophecies. the authors tested this hypothesis by examining whether self-verification processes mediated self-fulfilling prophecy effects within a different context and with a different belief and a different outcome than has been used in prior research. results of longitudinal data obtained from mothers and their adolescents (n = 332) indicated that mothers' beliefs about their adolescents' educational outcomes had a significant indirect effect on adolescents' academic attainment through adolescents' educational aspirations. this effect,observed over a 6-year span,provided evidence that mothers' self-fulfilling effects occurred,in part,because mothers' false beliefs influenced their adolescents' own educational aspirations,which adolescents then self-verified through their educational attainment. the theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed. © 2011 by the society for personality and social psychology.