Do mother's socialization goals in early childhood predict children's later self?

In this study, maternal socialization goals in early childhood were linked to qualities of children's self in middle childhood, while also considering maternal education and child gender. Estonian mothers (N = 209; M_age = 33.6; 52.2% had university education) provided ratings of their socialization goals for children (52.2% girls; M_age = 6.2), children's self was gauged 4 years later. The more mothers endorsed social conformity-related socialization goals, the fewer different autonomy-related (β = −0.15) and relatedness-related qualities of self (β = −0.21) their children had in their descriptions of themselves and their autobiographical memories. Mothers' self-maximization socialization goals were not linked to the qualities of children's self. Mothers without a university degree endorsed social conformity-related socialization goals more than mothers with a university degree (β = −0.20). Girls referred to more relatedness-related qualities than boys (β = 0.23). The results show that maternal socialization goals do not always have a straightforward effect on different qualities of children's self. Yet, conformity-related goals by mothers predict the qualities of children's later self.

Highlights

• Children's self is predicted by gender and earlier maternal socialization goals.
• Mother's social conformity-related socialization goals predict children's later self.
• Self-maximization related socialization goals are not linked to children's self.