Parents Talk about Success and Failure in Math: Causes and Consequences for Childrens Beliefs, Achievement, and Motivation

The current research examined if parents mindsets about math ability contribute to the language they used about math ability with their children, as well as the downstream consequences of parents language for childrens mindsets, motivation, and achievement in math. When parents (N = 120) of young elementary school children (mean age = 39.02 years) were experimentally induced to hold a growth (vs. fixed) mindset about math ability), they were significantly more likely to use process- (vs. person-) oriented language when reading a story with their child about the success and failure of third-party characters (Study 1). Using a similar storybook context which manipulated the type of language young children (N = 20; mean age = 7.86 years) heard about math performance, Study 2 did not find an effect of process versus person language on children.Ope