The roles of achievement-related behaviours and parental beliefs in children´s mathematical performance

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the developmental dynamics between children's mathematical performance, the task-focused versus task-avoidant behaviours they show in the classroom, and their parents' beliefs concerning their school competence. The mathematical performance of 111 six- to seven-year-old children was tested, and their task-focused versus task-avoidant behaviours were rated by their teachers four times during their first school year. Parents filled in questionnaires measuring their skill-specific and general beliefs about their children's school competencies at the beginning and at the end of the school year. The results showed that parents' beliefs in their children's general school competence increased their children's task-focused behaviours at school, which further predicted the child's high level of maths performance. Parents' beliefs in their children's competence in mathematics, in turn, contributed directly to the children's high mathematical performance. Moreover, children's high performance increased parents' subsequent beliefs in their children's mathematical competence, whereas children's task-focused behaviours predicted parents' beliefs in their children's overall school performance.