Who they are, what they think, and what they do: mothers' school-related identities, academic socialization, and child academic readiness

This study adopts an intergenerational approach to explore whether mothers' school experiences influence academic readiness through parenting beliefs and parenting quality. Forty-five mothers were categorised as either having a desired or feared school-related identity based on their narratives about past school experiences and the ways they prepare their children for school. Desired school-related identity was associated with higher literacy readiness but not math readiness. Our results also suggest that mothers with feared school-related identities reported feeling greater responsibility for socializing their children to school than did mothers with desired school-related identities. Examination of mediation pattern suggested that parenting quality is among the pathways from maternal school-related identity to child's reading readiness, even when accounting for household income. Although preliminary, our findings point to intergenerational influences on academic readiness.