The self-fulfilling prophecy as an intrafamily dynamic

Abstract

This research examined whether parents' and children's perceptions of one another have reciprocal self-fulfilling effects on each other's behavior. Parents and their adolescent children completed self-report surveys and engaged in dyadic videotaped interaction tasks. The surveys assessed mothers', fathers', and children's perceptions of their own and the other's hostility and warmth. Observers coded the videotaped interactions to assess the actual hostility and warmth exhibited by parents and children. Data from 658 mother-child dyads were consistent with the conclusion that children had a self-fulfilling effect on their mothers' hostility but that mothers did not have a reciprocal self-fulfilling effect on their children's hostility. No other self-fulfilling prophecy effects emerged. Findings are discussed in terms of family relations and the differential power of negative versus positive self-fulfilling prophecies.