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Original Article

You Will Attain My Goal

The Structure of Parental Goals for Children Based on an Adapted Version of the Aspirations Index

Published Online:April 22, 2016https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000317

Abstract

Abstract. This paper deals with parental goals for children, that is, goals parents want their children to attain by the time they reach adulthood. Presenting an adaption of the German Aspirations Index to assess parental goals for children (AI-PG), factorial structure and psychometric properties in a nonclinical sample of German parents of children between 10 and 15 years of age were investigated. Parents (NT1 = 948; NT2 = 670) rated the importance of different parental goals for children. The AI-PG structure was first examined in a subsample of mothers using confirmatory factor analyses. Main results provided support for the hypothesized hierarchical factorial structure. Accordingly, the given 21 items can be assigned to seven first-order factors that reflect goal-contents, and two second-order factors that reflect goals’ motivational orientation as either intrinsic or extrinsic. The questionnaire shows good psychometric properties (i.e., homogeneity, model-based reliability, and stability). Multiple-group analyses confirmed measurement invariance across informants (mothers and fathers), gender of target children (daughters and sons), and measurement time points. Small but significant relationships of the scales with need-threatened environment, parenting practices, and child internalizing behavior problems added to the scale’s construct validity. Results are discussed in terms of the fruitfulness of a concept of parental goals for children within self-determination theory.

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