Volume 97, Issue 5 pp. 1261-1271
RESEARCH ARTICLE

The Longitudinal Relationship Between Perceived Parental Growth Mindset and Children's Math-Specific Grit: The Mediational Role of Growth Mindset and Self-Efficacy

Meng Guo

Corresponding Author

Meng Guo

College of Education for the Future, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai, China

Correspondence: Meng Guo ([email protected])

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First published: 27 March 2025

ABSTRACT

Background

Grit has been identified as playing a prominent role in the learning process. However, the development of students' grit within the family environment remains under-researched.

Aims

This study employed a longitudinal design to explore how perceived parental growth mindsets (T1) influence students' math-specific grit (T2) and examined the mediating role of growth mindset and self-efficacy; (T2) in this relationship.

Sample

The participants included 1005 secondary school students in China.

Methods

Structural equation modeling was employed to examine the relationship between parental growth mindset and children's motivational beliefs and grit. Bootstrap analysis was further conducted to assess the mediating roles of growth mindset and self-efficacy.

Results

The results demonstrated that perceived parental growth mindsets positively predicted students' growth mindsets. Consistency of interest was positively associated with self-efficacy, while perseverance of effort was positively predicted by both students' growth mindsets and self-efficacy. The results of the bootstrap analysis supported the chained mediational role of growth mindsets and self-efficacy between parental growth mindsets and students' math-specific grit.

Conclusions

Overall, this study found a positive impact of perceived parental growth mindset on children's math-specific grit and revealed the underlying mechanism by verifying the mediating roles of children's growth mindset and self-efficacy.

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares no conflicts of interest.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.