2-108 - How Parents’ Beliefs and Practices Shape Children’s Achievement Motivation

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Parents play a critical role in shaping children’s motivation and achievement across development, yet relatively little research examines how this process occurs. What parental beliefs influence children’s achievement? How are these beliefs communicated? Which behaviors impact children’s motivation? This symposium addresses these issues, identifying a number of ways that parents’ beliefs and behaviors may help children develop into productive learners.

The first paper examines how parents’ naturalistic use of praise during infancy relates to achievement 7 years later. Praising the process toddlers engage in (e.g., effort, strategies) rather than personal traits (i.e., abilities, intelligence) predicted standardized test performance in 4th grade by increasing children’s belief that people can grow their intelligence. The second paper addresses beliefs that lead parents to use this process-oriented language. Parents led to believe math ability is malleable were more likely to focus on the process when talking with their child about math. The third paper identifies a different belief system – parents’ mindsets about failure as either an enhancing or debilitating experience. Parents who believed failure is enhancing had children who believed they could grow their intelligence, through a process of parents focusing more on children’s learning and less on their performance. Paper four shows that in a randomized-controlled intervention, parents taught how to respond to children’s needs were more likely to support children’s autonomy, something we know fosters intrinsic motivation. Using varied methods and frameworks, these papers identify important processes through which parents shape their children’s success.

Sub Unit

• Education, Schooling

Chair

• Kyla Haimovitz, Stanford University

Individual Presentations

• Parent Praise in Early Childhood Predicts Fourth Grade Academic Achievement - Presenting Author: Sarah J Gripshover, Stanford University; Nicole Sorhagen, Univ of Penn; Elizabeth A Gunderson, Temple University; Carol S Dweck, Stanford University; Susan Goldin-Meadow, University of Chicago; Susan Cohen Levine, University of Chicago

• Parents’ Conversations with Children about Math: An Investigation of the Role of Parents’ Ability Mindsets - Presenting Author: Christina Marie Tworek, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Eva Pomerantz, Univ of Illinois; Andrei Cimpian, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Failure Mindsets: Parents' Beliefs about Failure Predict Children's Theories of Intelligence - Presenting Author: Kyla Haimovitz, Stanford University; Carol S Dweck, Stanford University

• Effects of a New Preventive Intervention on Parental Attitudes and Autonomy Support: The Parent Check-In - Presenting Author: Elizabeth Flamm, Clark University; Wendy S Grolnick, Clark Univ; Eileen Diggins, Dartmouth College