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Mothers’ Generalized Beliefs About Adolescents:

Links to Expectations for a Specific child

Wake Forest University

Mothers’ generalized beliefs about adolescents were used to predict a mother’s expectations for her own child’s adolescent years. Participants were 75 mothers of children in either sixth grade or seventh grade. Generalized beliefs about adolescents predicted the mother’s expectations for her own young adolescent even after accounting for the young adolescent’s current attributes (e.g., depressed mood, closeness to mother). For example, the more likely a mother was to believe that adolescents as a group are conforming, risk-taking and rebellious, or internalizing, the more likely she was to expect adolescence to be difficult for her own child. Greater beliefs that adolescents are upstanding/prosocial predicted greater expectations for a closer parent/child relationship during the child’s adolescence. The link between a mother’s generalized beliefs and her expectations for her young adolescent did not vary by the child’s pubertal development or gender. Potential implications of parental beliefs concerning adolescence for parenting and parent/child relationships are discussed.

Key Words: social cognition • early adolescence • parental beliefs • parental expectations • stereotypes of adolescence

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