Non scholae sed vitae!? An exploration of the role of parents' future prospects for parenting practices and their view of the usefulness of school for their child's future

Research on parents’ direct and indirect involvement in their child’s education has shown how parental hopes and aspirations affect their child’s learning. Based on this, this research studies the relation between parents’ views of their own and their child’s future and how these affect parenting practices as well as their ratings of the usefulness of schooling for their child’ future success. Results from a mixed-methods study with 497 parents showed that parents see a broad number of challenges in their child’s future and that fatalistic and hedonistic attitudes affect parents’ anticipatory problem solving, affect management, and granting their child self-direction. Child’s school level and parents’ own educational background also played a role in explaining parenting practices and scepticism toward schooling.