Parent goals, child goal orientations, and procrastination in mathematics learning: does gender matter?

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This study explored the relationships between parent goals, child goal orientations, and academic procrastination, with a focus on gender differences. Participants included 568 boys and 622 girls and their parents from three Chinese primary schools. In both boy and girl models, parents’ goals positively predicted children’s corresponding goal orientations. Academic procrastination was negatively predicted by parents’ and children’s mastery goals in both groups. Some gender ­differences were found. The positive relationship between child performance-avoidance orientation and procrastination was only significant in the girl group. The boys reported a higher level of procrastination than girl group. The bootstrap analysis confirmed the mediational role of students’ mastery orientations in both groups and those of performance-avoidance orientations in the girl group. Multiple-group SEM further identified that the relationship between parent performance goals and child performance-avoidance orientation was stronger in the girl sample than that in the boy sample.