Profiles of parents’ beliefs about their child’s intelligence and self-regulation: a latent profile analysis

This study examined parents’ implicit theories of intelligence and self-regulation from a person-centered perspective using latent profile analysis. First, we explored whether different belief profiles exist. Second, we examined if the emergent belief profiles (1) differ by demographic variables (e....

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Stern, Maren (Author) , Hertel, Silke (Author)
Format: Article (Journal)
Language:English
Published: 09 December 2020
In: Frontiers in psychology
Year: 2020, Volume: 11, Pages: 1-13
ISSN:1664-1078
DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.610262
Online Access:Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.610262
Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.610262/full
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Author Notes:Maren Stern and Silke Hertel
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Summary:This study examined parents’ implicit theories of intelligence and self-regulation from a person-centered perspective using latent profile analysis. First, we explored whether different belief profiles exist. Second, we examined if the emergent belief profiles (1) differ by demographic variables (e.g., age, education, child’s self-regulation) and (2) are related to parents’ failure beliefs, goal orientation (i.e., learning goals, performance-approach goals, performance-avoidance goals), and co-regulatory strategies (i.e., mastery-oriented and helpless-oriented strategies). Data were collected from N=137 parents of preschoolers who answered an online survey comprising their implicit theories about the malleability and relevance of the domains (a) intelligence and (b) self-regulation. We identified three belief profiles: profile 1 (9% of the sample) displayed an entity theory, profile 2 (61% of the sample) showed a balanced pattern of both domains of implicit theories, and profile 3 (30% of the sample) was characterized by high incremental self-regulation theories. Analyses showed that parents differed significantly in education and their perception of child self-regulatory competence depending on profile membership, with parents in profile 1 having the lowest scores compared to parents of the other profiles. Differences in parents’ failure beliefs, goal orientation, and co-regulatory strategies were also found depending on profile membership. Parents in profile 3 reported failure-is-enhancing mindsets, and mastery-oriented strategies significantly more often than parents in profiles 1 and 2. The results provide new insights into the interplay of important domains of implicit theories, and their associations with parents’ failure beliefs, goal orientation, and co-regulatory strategies.
Item Description:Gesehen am 17.12.2020
Physical Description:Online Resource
ISSN:1664-1078
DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.610262