Madon (2004)

Madon's 2004 study fits into Topic E - Criminality. It is a key study that you need to learn in this syllabus. It supports the social side of the nature-nurture debate. It is about the self-fulfilling prophecy. You will need to know it's aim, procedure, results/findings, conclusion/evaluation.

Aim
To see if a parent’s expectations of their child’s drinking habits would become a reality.

Procedure
Questioned 115 children aged between 12 and 13 and their parents. They were asked to guess how much alcohol their child regularly drank/would drink over the coming year. Then after a year, the children were asked about how much they actually drank.

Results/Findings
Madon found that the children who drank the most alcohol were the ones whose parents had predicted a greater use of alcohol. It only took one parent to have a negative opinion about their child’s drinking habits to show a relationship with high levels of drinking. However, the child seemed at greater risk of higher alcohol use if both parents had negative beliefs.

Conclusion
The study showed that a parent’s prediction of their child’s alcohol use was very accurate. The parent’s expectations were consistent with alcohol use after 12 months. It could be concluded that this is a self for filling prophecy because what the parent expected came true. It may show that a parents beliefs can have a massive influence on a child behaviour.