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Parents’ estimations of their own intelligence and that of their children: A comparison between English and Icelandic parents
Author(s) -
FURNHAM ADRIAN,
VALGEIRSSON HALLDOR
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9450.2007.00587.x
Subject(s) - psychology , icelandic , wechsler intelligence scale for children , wechsler adult intelligence scale , intelligence quotient , developmental psychology , explained variation , cognition , statistics , psychiatry , philosophy , linguistics , mathematics
In this study, 158 parents (79 fathers and 79 mothers) with a mean age of 38.3 yrs ( SD = 8.2), estimated their own, and their children's, overall intelligence as well as their children's score on the 12 intelligence scales from the Wechsler's Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC‐III). The sample included English ( n = 122) and Icelandic parents ( n = 36), and a comparison between them showed few differences except that Icelandic parents’ estimates were lower than English parents’ estimates. The results showed fathers estimated their own overall intelligence higher than mothers estimated theirs and sons were estimated higher than daughters on overall intelligence. Two factors (verbal, performance) of intelligence were identified through factor analysis of the ratings of the 12 WISC subscale score estimates. A hierarchical regression showed that these two factors explained most of the variance in the estimation of the child's overall intelligence; however, gender of child and parents’ self‐estimated own overall intelligence added incremental variance.