When parents who are afraid of math try to help their children with examples and problems, they can “infect” them with their insecurities.
The teacher’s lack of confidence in their mathematical knowledge prevents students from effectively learning the material, psychologist Erin A. Maloney and colleagues found out earlier. Now they decided to find out how children are affected by the experiences of parents. The new study involved 438 first and second graders with their parents (or guardians). At the beginning and end of the school year, psychologists assessed children’s progress in mathematics and their fear of this subject. As a control parameter, their progress in reading was assessed. At the same time, parents (or guardians) were given a questionnaire to fill out, which asked them to indicate whether they themselves were nervous or anxious about mathematics and how often they helped their children to do their homework in this subject.
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It turned out that the parents who wrote at the beginning of the year that they were afraid of mathematics, the children learned less mathematical material in a year and were more nervous when it came to this subject. However, this relationship was observed only in cases where parents helped students with homework – for this reason, researchers tend to believe that this relationship is psychological, not genetic in nature.
“We forget that the attitude of parents can affect the learning and academic performance of children. Our results show that if the child often hears from them something like “Oh, not math” or “How stressful these problems are for me”, he learns this attitude, and this can prevent him from successfully studying“, – says the lead author of the study, a psychologist from the University of Chicago (USA) Sian Beilock (Sian Beilock).
In order to effectively help your child with homework, parents need to prepare. Books like “Entertaining Math”, computer and board games, educational programs and applications can help with this.
Подробнее см. E. Maloney et al. «Intergenerational effects of parents’ math anxiety on children’s math achievement and anxiety», Psychological Science, August 2015.