This is ABSOLUTELY true!!! My daughter can have an expression that looks JUST like her low-life father even though she hasn't seen him since she was two. So it isn't from seeing the expression. It makes me want to say things like "STOP LOOKING LIKE YOUR FATHER!".
I have thought from time to time how our face determines our life.
We all know people who have a grumpy looking face despite their best efforts to "happy" it up. I am sure it brings out the grump in the way others treat them, thereby putting a whole grouch cycle into motion.
Ditto for folks with naturally happy faces- or smart, or mischevious, or funny, or sexy, etc...
The unfortunate truth of life is that you will forever be known by the company you keep...
Don't say it! Poor baby can't help it. Look for things that look like you instead. - One thing for sure, kids no matter what age must feel okay about their parents or else their own self-image will be tainted by it. Of course, sometimes the parent who is lacking and destructive sometimes does things to the kid directly that forever prohibits them being able to rise to the level of being able to sublimate that parent (as in sexual abuse or other things). However, for general run of the mill lousiness, kids have to be helped about not falling into a failure hole because of the failing parent.
(For instance, I read about one mother whose husband deserted her and their children early on, hardly ever sent her a dime for the kids, even when he did the checks bounced. She purposely left any letter he sent laying around where the kids could find it, especially the rare one that contained even a bad check; finally gave up on trying to cash them - but NEVER told the kids anything negative about him. Later, they were able to at least talk with him, didn't hate him, but most importantly weren't left hating themselves for being kin to him.)