Research has come up with a lot of things that parents might think about math, learning, and their children, but studies haven’t directly compared parents’ cognitions to see what matters most. We used longitudinal data from the EMLP to compare the effects on children’s math adjustment. 2/8
I generally think it is good to have growth-related mindsets (believe that ability can grow and that failure is not debilitating). But parents' mindset beliefs did not seem to predict children’s math adjustment controlling for other parent cognitions and children’s previous adjustment. 5/8
Lastly, we were able to investigate child effects on parent cognitions! For example, if their kid is doing better in math, parents tend to have higher perceptions of children’s competence (in other words, parents are attentive and attuned to how their children are doing in math). 7/8
Interestingly, if a kid is doing well in math or holds a growth mindset, these predict parents’ believing less over time that math failure is debilitating. That direction of effect is kind of novel! A sign we need more research on the bidirectional interplay between parents and kids in math. 8/8
If anyone wanted to review for @aera-motsig.bsky.social for the 2027 conference but couldn't figure out the system (or you forgot), send me a message and I can add you to our list!
Parents who have high math anxiety have kids who are less well-adjusted in math on a lot of the same dimensions, replicating prior research on how parent math anxiety undermines children’s math achievement. This effect was unique from parents’ perceptions of kids’ competence. 4/8
I suspect a lot of things have to happen in between parents agreeing with growth mindset and supporting their children’s math learning (see also doi.org/10.1037/dev0...), which means that maybe targeting other parent cognitions is better for supporting kids’ math learning. 6/8
Parents have a lot of beliefs about math. Which ones are most closely tied to how their children are doing in math over time? New paper in JEP led by Carolyn MacDonald with Eva Pomerantz! dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0... 1/8
Parents who think their kids are doing well in math have kids who are better adjusted in math 1 year later (more growth mindset, prefer challenges, lower math anxiety, higher achievement). We controlled for kids’ prior adjustment, so there might be some self-fulfilling prophecy happening here. 3/8