A new study shows dreaming big can actually influence kids’ achievements later in life—and they look to their parents and teachers for their aspirations
We already know that there are a lot of factors—especially socioeconomic ones like financial status, neighborhood safety, education, etc.—that play a part in determining a child’s future achievements. We have a long way to go to make opportunities equitable for kids from different socioeconomic backgrounds, but one new study offers some hope. Scientists who studied different cohorts of kids over the last 50 years found that dreaming big—having lofty aspirations about what they want in the future—could be an equal (if not more important) predictor of their adult success as their IQ or their family’s socioeconomic status.
The study, which was recently published, followed 17,000 children from 1958 to present day. Researchers conducted surveys with the children throughout their lives, compiling more than half a century of data that linked their childhood (including the dreams they had for their future) to their adult success.
Unsurprisingly, one of the first trends the researchers observed is that kids from less privileged backgrounds tended to have more modest aspirations. For example, at age seven, just 22 percent of kids from the bottom fifth of family incomes said that they planned to go to college after high school. In stark contrast, from the top fifth of family incomes, almost twice as many kids were dreaming big about their future college education.
But there was a bright spot in that data.
According to the British Psychological Society’s analysis of the research, “the influence of parents and teachers impacted on the formation of aspirations above the socioeconomic background of families and their own abilities. That is, parents’ desires for their children’s future were a stronger influence on their aspirations and, eventually, their achievements, than their socioeconomic background.”
In other words, the kids with the biggest dreams often went on to achieve more as adults—and their aspirations were an even stronger indicator of success than their IQ, abilities, or socioeconomic status as kids. What’s more is that when kids were encouraged to dream big by their parents and educators, their chances of success later in life went up even more!
So if your kid is dreaming big about being a future astronaut or president, they should go right ahead—with plenty of encouragement from the adults in their lives that they can achieve great things.
