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. 
== Evaluation ==
Strengths 	Weaknesses
Large sample of participants
More valid, true 	Parents may not have influenced their child’s behaviour at all - just very accurate at judging their child’s alcohol use
Gives strong warning to parents about holding negative beliefs about their children	Many other factors influence a child’s drinking behaviour eg. friends and the media
 	It is only a correlation, no solid proof
 	Social desirability bias - children may say they drink more to look tough, parents may say they drink less because it is not acceptable