Childhood and beyond

de J.E. Eccles, Henry A. Murray Research Center

The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of the development and socialization of children's self-perceptions, task values, and activi choices. Childhood and Beyond is a large-scale, cross-sequential, longitudinal study of development in four primarily white, lower-middle- to middle-class school districts in Midwestern urban/suburban communities, begun in 1986. The study began with groups of children in kindergarten, first, and third grade. Many issues were studied, including children's achievement self-perceptions in various domains and the roles that parents and teachers play on socializing these beliefs. Parent involvement in their children's education was also explored. The Murray Center has acquired computer data and selected questionnaire pages with open-ended responses for entire sample.