Parental Educational Beliefs and Parenting Behaviors Predict the Development of Child Math Anxiety

• In Event: Understanding How Math Anxiety Develops, Operates, and Is Better Treated Using Multi-Method Approaches

Abstract

Reports of mathematics anxiety (MA) in children as young as elementary school (Ramirez et al.2018) has generated significant interest in the etiology and development of MA. The Developmental Dynamic Bio-Psycho-Social Model (Rubinsten et al., 2018) suggests that environmental factors such as parenting serve as important predictors of early development of MA. Research has supported this model by showing that higher parental pressure to maintain high achievement was associated with higher child MA (Daches et al., 2017). Importantly, parenting behaviors often reflect parents’ educational beliefs about the nature of math learning. For example, math-anxious parents may inadvertently increase the likelihood of early MA development by helping their children with homework (Maloney et al., 2015). However, several critical questions remain in our understanding of how parental educational beliefs and parenting behaviors may shape the early development of MA. Are parenting/parental beliefs simply correlated with MA or do they predict the development of MA? Given the multidimensional nature of parenting and parental beliefs, which specific dimension predicts MA development? Do the different dimensions of parenting mediate the longitudinal effect of parental educational beliefs on the development of MA? Given the gendered socialization of math learning, are the associations between parenting/parental beliefs and MA development specific to boys vs. girls? We used a longitudinal design to investigate how maternal parenting behaviors (support, pressure, and expectation) mediate the associations between maternal educational beliefs (math-specific goal orientation and theory of intelligence) and the development of MA.
Participants are third to sixth graders (n = 161; 52% female) and their mothers. Mothers provided reports on their goal orientation for their child’s math learning (Haimovitz & Dweck, 2016), math-specific theory of intelligence (Ilhan & Cetin, 2013), support, pressure, and expectation (Campbell, 1994; Fennema & Sherman, 1976; OCED, 2013) in their first annual assessment. Children self-reported their MA (MASC; Chiu & Henry, 1990) in both the initial and the follow-up assessments, which were about one year apart.
Two models (Figures 1 and 2) were used to examine the mediating roles of maternal behaviors on the effects of (1) maternal goal orientation, and (2) maternal theory of intelligence on child MA. Maternal support mediated the effect of maternal learning goal orientation on child MA among girls only. Mothers who prioritized learning goals for their child’s math education provided more support in their child’s math learning, which predicted less increase in girls’ MA. In addition, the mothers with higher learning goals for their child’s math education exhibited higher expectations for their daughters’, but not sons’ education. To the contrary, mothers that held higher performance goals for their child’s math education exhibited higher expectations for their sons’ but not daughters’ education. The study makes a significant contribution to understanding the interplay between the home math environment and the early development of MA. The findings highlight the importance of sociocultural context in the development of MA as maternal math-specific educational practices may be gendered, which leads to divergent patterns in the early development of MA for boys and girls.

Authors

• Minchao Wang, Texas A&M University

• Ruyu Yan, Texas A&M University

• Anjali Chaudhary, Texas A&M University

• Zhe Wang, Texas A&M University