Abstract
Although parents have been shown to be key to children’s motivation and learning, little is known regarding the specific ways in which parents might influence their children’s academic outcomes. The present study aimed to explore the direct effect of parents’ failure beliefs on children’s math achievement as well as the mediating effects of children’s math self-efficacy, responses to failure and intelligence mindset in this context. The participants included 451 Chinese fifth-grade children and their parents. The results of this research revealed that (a) parents’ failure beliefs were directly and positively associated with children’s math achievement; (b) parents’ failure beliefs affected children’s math achievement through the chain mediating effects of children’s responses to failure and math self-efficacy as well as the chain mediating effects of children’s failure beliefs and intelligence mindset; and (c) children’s responses to failure played fully mediating roles in the relationship between parents’ failure beliefs and children’s intelligence mindset as well as in the relationship between parents’ failure beliefs and children’s math self-efficacy. All of these findings can guide parents in their attempts to support their children’s education most effectively.
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This study was supported by the National Education Science Planning Fund of China (grant number BMA210045).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Aoxue Su. Data analysis were performed by Aoxue Su and Guohao He. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Aoxue Su. The review and editing of the manuscript was written by Aoxue Su and Guohao He. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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This study was approved by the Ethics Review Committee of the school of science at Minzu University of China. All participants and their legal guardians signed a consent form before they participated in the study.
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Aoxue Su, College of Science, Minzu University of China, 27 Zhongguancun South Street, Haidian District, Beijing, China. E-mail: suaoxue@muc.edu.cn
Guohao He, College of Science, Minzu University of China, 27 Zhongguancun South Street, Haidian District, Beijing, China. E-mail: guohao_he@muc.edu.cn
Current themes of research:
Parenting behaviors, beliefs, achievement orientation and motivation.
Most Relevant Publications:
Su, A., Wan, S., He, W., & Dong, L. (2021). Effect of intelligence mindsets on math achievement for Chinese primary school students: Math self-efficacy and failure beliefs as mediators. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 640349. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.640349.
Tao, V. Y. K., Li, Y., & Wu, A. M. S. (2022). Do not despise failures: Students’ failure mindset, perception of parents’ failure mindset, and implicit theory of intelligence. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 37(2), 375–389. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-020-00524-y.
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Su, A., He, G. The effects of parents’ failure beliefs on children’s math achievement: children’s math self-efficacy, responses to failure and intelligence mindset as mediators. Eur J Psychol Educ 39, 3011–3028 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-024-00833-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-024-00833-6