Building the Parent and Child Math Anxiety Network model from empirical evidence

Abstract

AbstractMath achievement is one of the strongest predictors of academic success and career attainment. While research has focused on cognitive factors that relate to math achievement, a growing body of literature suggests that affective factors like math anxiety also relate to math achievement. The field of math anxiety has expanded to recognize that not only children's but also parents' math anxiety is related to math performance. Yet, specific mechanisms through which parents' math anxiety relates to children's math performance are not well explicated. In this article, we synthesize research on the relation between parents' math anxiety and children's math achievement, and then propose a comprehensive model (the Parent and Child Math Anxiety Network model) to demonstrate the likely pathways through which parents' math anxiety may affect children's math achievement.