FEMALE UNDERACHIEVEMENT AND OVERACHIEVEMENT - PARENTAL CONTRIBUTIONS AND LONG-TERM CONSEQUENCES

The present study, part of the Swedish longitudinal project, Individual Development and Adjustment (IDA; female N = 557), concerned two groups of girls designated ''Underachievers'' and ''Overachievers''. At age 16 the Underachievers exhibited higher intelligence but lower achievement, self-perceived ability, and school adaptation than did the Overachievers. To a significant extent, the Underachievers came from homes in which, three years earlier when the girls were 13, the parents had reported a low evaluation of their daughters' capacity for academic work; moreover, the parents had no aspiration for their daughters to continue their educations past compulsory school. In contrast, at age 16 the Overachievers did not come from families reporting the non-academically oriented parental evaluations and aspirations that characterised the parents of the Underachievers. In adolescences, the Underachievers' relations with their parents were more conflicted than were the relationships of the Overachievers. In adult-hood, the young women who had been Underachievers exhibited significantly lower levels of education and occupation than did the Overachievers. Also, compared to the other women in the IDA sample, significantly more of the Underachievers had borne children by age 26, whereas significantly fewer of the Overachievers had given birth. It was concluded that the values parents espoused concerning educational attainment played a role in inhibiting or promoting their daughters' optimal adaptation-both in and beyond the academic environment.