If parents shudder at the thought of algebra or arithmetic, they can pass that dread of math on to their children, according to a new study.
For their study, published this month in the journal Psychological Science, researchers tracked more than 400 1st and 2nd graders.
Students whose parents reported high math anxiety made significantly less progress in math over the course of a year and were more likely to become anxious themselves—but only if their anxious parents sweated through helping them with homework.
By contrast, students with math-anxious parents who helped with homework showed no similar problems in reading.
