Parents' implicit intelligence beliefs about children's intelligence: Implications for children's academic self-concept and achievement in Maths, English, and French

In this study, we hypothesized that a higher parents' fixed mindset will lead to lower achievement in math, French and English (MEF) school subjects, but also that lower achievement in MEF will lead to a higher parents' fixed mindset. We have also tested the mediational role of academic self-concept (ASC) in the parents' fixed mindset-children's achievement relation. Participants (n = 1046 students and their parents) have filled twice a questionnaire. Results indicate that parents' fixed mindset significantly and negatively predicted subsequent achievement in French and English, but the magnitude of these coefficients was quite low (β < | 0.07|). Moreover, most relations connecting prior ASC to subsequent achievement in MEF were not supported thereby discarding the possibility that ASC mediates the parents' fixed mindset-children's achievement relation. Overall, these results cast some doubts about the importance of parental fixed mindset for children's academic achievement and ASC.

Educational relevance and implications of the research

The present study tests if the effect of parental fixed mindset on achievement in Math, English, and French school subjects is explained by students' academic self-concept in these school subjects. The results showed that parental fixed mindset weakly predicts subsequent achievement in French and English and that academic self-concept does not mediate this small association. Thus, the safest conclusion is that parents' mindsets are related to their children's achievement, but so weakly that it is difficult to recommend any intervention based on parental mindsets with this research.