Skip to main content

Mathematics anxiety: like parents like children




The mathematics anxiety of parents can undermine their children’s mathematics achievement, says the Association for Psychological Science (August 10, 2015). So like parents like children.

University of Chicago psychological researchers, Sian Beilock and Susan Levine and their postdoctoral scholars Erin Maloney, Gerardo Ramirez, and Elizabeth Gunderson, found that children of parents who have mathematics anxiety learned less throughout the school year and were more likely to be anxious about mathematics themselves – but only if the parents tried to provide frequent assistance with their child’s mathematics homework. Their article, Intergenerational Effects of Parent’s Math Anxiety on Children’s Math Achievement and Anxiety, in Psychologica Science explains the research.

The researchers had conducted previous research on math-anxious teachers and found that their students learned less mathematics during the year. Hence they extended their research to study the link between parents and children. They found that children are influenced by their parents’ negative comments and attitudes about mathematics. The parents were also poor at explaining mathematical concepts to their children and did not respond well when their children made mistakes or couldn’t solve a problem.

The study involved 438 first and second grade students and their parents (primary caregivers). Children were assessed in mathematics achievement and mathematics anxiety at the beginning of the school year and at the end of the school year. For the control group, the research team assessed reading achievement, which they found was not related to parental mathematics anxiety.

Parents completed a questionnaire about their mathematics anxiety and about how they helped their children with mathematics homework. They found that mathematical performance in children was linked not to genetics, but to the attitude of parents. This was because the more anxious parents helped children with their mathematics homework their children performed worse than with no help and were more anxious around their parents.

The study did not disaggregate according to gender, so we don’t know whether mothers or fathers were more anxious, or how it affected male or female children.

So what to do: help parents prepare for handling mathematics homework and reduce negative comments, attitudes, and anxiety or tell parents to stay away from their children when they are doing mathematics homework?





http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-08/afps-pma081015.php
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2016 update on Rike Park, Tbilisi: from construction to busy park

From a flat patch of uninteresting dirt, Rike Park in Tbilisi, Georgia, has transformed in four years (from 2014-2016) into a busy park full of trees, flower beds, sculptures, fountains, and events. Rike (Rikhe) Park is on the left bank of the Mt’k’vari River (the Kura River) near the Old City of Tbilisi. The Peace Bridge links the right bank to Rike Park. Rike Park is below the hillside Presidential Palace and, via cable car, it is the starting point for the ride to Sololaki Ridge (with the Narikala Fortress and the Mother of Georgia statue). The glass box-shaped cable car terminus was opened on 23 June 2012, and since then the park has continually developed into a ‘people’s park’ where people can walk around, eat at the nearby restaurants, sit next to the statue of American president Ronald Reagan, climb the steps to Avlabari district, and access the sights of Meidan Square, the Peace Bridge, the Metekhi Church, the Old City, the waterfall, the sulphur baths, and t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...
1 comment
Read more

Hop on hop off bus tourism comes to Tbilisi, Georgia

City Sightseeing buses have arrived in Tbilisi. The iconic red double-decker buses, a feature of many cities around the world since the company was established in Seville, Spain in 1999, is now in six continents and almost 100 cities. The company established its Tbilisi business in November 2013, with its operations commencing in February 2014. The 90-minute tour stops at 11 major locations in Tbilisi (with 2 to 5 minute waiting times at each location): the Old City (where it commences), Freedom Square, Rose Revolution Square, Marjanishvili Square, the Dry Bridge, Konka, Avlabari, Metekhi, Akhundov Museum, the Sulfur Baths, and European Square. Passengers can hop off at any stop and see the sights, hopping back onto the next bus at any time. Alternatively, passengers can remain on the bus for the whole tour and take photographs when the bus stops at each location. There are one day (24-hour) passes (for 35 lari – about $20) and 48-hour passes for 55 lari, with family d...
2 comments
Read more