Children’s Future-Oriented Cognition and Family Characteristics: How Similar are Children’s and Parents’ Future-Oriented Cognition?

Future-oriented cognition involves several domains that are critical to daily functioning, such as planning, prospective memory, episodic foresight, saving, and delay of gratification. The current study investigated the role of family characteristics in the development of future-oriented cognition, specifically whether parents' future-oriented cognition (i.e. planning, prospective memory, episodic foresight, saving, and delay of gratification) and socioeconomic status were related to their child's future-oriented cognition. In Study 1, 146 parents of 3- to 5-year-olds completed several measures assessing their own and their child's future-oriented cognition, cognitive skills, and behavioral tendencies. Parents' future-oriented cognition, parent education, and family income were related to children's future-oriented cognition. However, only parents' saving, prospective memory, and episodic foresight (but not planning or delay of gratification) were related to the corresponding domains of children's future-oriented cognition after controlling for children's age, executive function, delay aversion, delay discounting, and future orientation. Study 2 focused on prospective memory as a specific domain of future-oriented cognition: Parents of 2- to 6-year-olds (N = 179) completed measures of their own and their child's prospective memory and executive function. Family income, parents' prospective memory, and their executive function were related to children's prospective memory. However, none of these relations remained significant after controlling for children's age and executive function. Children's family characteristics seem to influence the development of future-oriented cognition in early childhood alongside age and cognitive abilities.