Study: Math Anxiety In Parents May Mean Poorer Math Grades For Kids

Parents who show anxiety about Math may be influencing their kids' learning, reveals a new study from Psychological Science. 

According to Today, researchers from the University of Chicago, University of Los Angeles and Temple University studied about 400 students in the first and second grade at the beginning and the end of school year. They tested the children's math skills and also conducted surveys and interviews about their nervousness over being called by the Math teacher in class. The parents of these kids were also surveyed to determine how their involvement in doing math homework had any impact on the children.

Psychological Science revealed that "when parents are more math anxious, their children learn significantly less math over the school year and have more math anxiety by the school year's end, but only if math-anxious parents report providing frequent help with math homework."

"Math-anxious parents may be less effective in explaining math concepts to children, and may not respond well when children make a mistake or solve a problem in a novel way," said Sarah Levine, one of the study authors, according to CBS News.

The research also showed that when anxious parents did not help the kids with their Math homework, the situation is much more improved.  "Notably, when parents reported helping with math homework less often, children's math achievement and attitudes were not related to parents' math anxiety," according to Erin Maloney, the lead study author, via Psychological Science.

The same group of researchers also did a previous study on teacher's anxiousness and saw that it also affects the way kids learn Math, according to Zee News. The researchers therefore conclude that the attitude of adults toward the subject plays a very significant factor in the children's Math achievements.

"We often don't think about how important parents' own attitudes are in determining their children's academic achievement. But our work suggests that if a parent is walking around saying 'Oh, I don't like math' or 'This stuff makes me nervous,' kids pick up on this messaging and it affects their success," said psychologist and co-author Sian Beilock via the news outlet.

Math is admittedly a difficult subject for many. According to Education, there are several reasons for this, which may include environmental factors like the method of instruction, materials used and learning gap between the student and the subject. It may also be individual factors.

Given what the researchers have found out in their study, they then suggested that for children to benefit better in Math classes, a tutor may be a better option than anxious parents, per Today. CBS also adds that tools like math books, board games and some internet apps will help.