Relational Scaffolding of School Motivation: Developmental Continuities in Students' and Parents' Ratings of the Importance of School Goals

Abstract

The authors investigated whether parents and students are consistent, over grade levels, in the importance they assign to school goals. Elementary and high school students (n = 178) and their parents (n = 130) completed a questionnaire addressing the personal importance of students' school goals, defined in terms of school success. Parent-child consistencies in the rating patterns of school goals over grade levels were more common than were inconsistencies. These developmental consistencies support the position that students' school goals are embedded within the parent-child relationship (J. Youniss, 1980; J. Youniss & J. Smollar, 1985) and are scaffolded within it (J. S. Bruner, 1975; L. S. Vygotsky, 1978). Potential sources of relational and phenotypic influences on school goals are discussed, as is the need for effective friendship management and school performance in high school.