The effects of parents’ failure beliefs on children’s math achievement: children’s math self-efficacy, responses to failure and intelligence mindset as mediators

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.