The Relationship of Parental Attitudes and Expectations to Children's Mathematics Achievement Behaviour

Abstract

This study concerns the nature of the influence of parents on the mathematics achievement and participation of early adolescent children. The subjects were 1605 Afrikaans-speaking seventh and ninth grade students whose parents were also invited to participate. Student measures were the perception of the encouragement, expectations and interest of parents in themselves as learners of mathematics. Also measured were parental attitudes such as confidence regarding mathematics, personal and general usefulness of mathematics, the stereotyping of mathematics, and expectations for their children. Although parents agreed on the general usefulness of mathematics, fathers had significantly more positive attitudes toward mathematics than mothers. Males were favoured, both with regard to their perceptions of the attitudes of parents and the actual expectations of parents. No support was found for the hypothesis that children model their behaviour on that of parents, whereas parental expectations proved to be important predictors of mathematics achievement behaviour, especially for females.