Does Helping Parents Adopt a Growth Mind-Set About Math Enhance Their Responses to Children's Performance?

• In Event: Motivation Interventions Targeting Mind-Set and Value

Abstract

Parents are an underutilized resource in children’s math learning, likely due to psychological barriers that prevent them from being constructively involved in such learning. To address this issue, we conducted a randomized controlled trial of a growth mindset intervention with 615 parents of young elementary school children. Parents received information about how math ability can grow with effort (i.e., mindset intervention) or children’s math curriculum (i.e., control condition). The mindset intervention led parents to hold beliefs and goals consistent with a growth mindset. Moreover, among parents who viewed their math competence as low, it heightened constructive responses to children’s performance. The findings suggest that helping parents to adopt a growth mindset about math can ultimately enhance children’s math learning.

Authors

• Dajung Oh, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Michael M. Barger, University of Georgia - Athens

• Andrei Cimpian

• Eva M. Pomerantz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign