Mathematics anxiety is a feeling of tension and fear when dealing with numbers or performing calculations. It is a common form of academic anxiety: according to an OECD report, around 40% of students feel nervous, helpless or anxious in everyday situations involving mathematics, such as solving problems or doing maths homework.

We know that mathematics anxiety is present from the first years of primary school, and it interferes with both mathematics performance and mathematics learning. However, the origins of mathematics anxiety are less clear.

Our new research, conducted in collaboration between the universities of Bologna, Trieste and Macerata in Italy and Loughborough University in the UK, addressed the question of whether parents may play a role in the development of children’s maths anxiety.

We wanted to find out if having a parent who struggled with maths anxiety would make it more likely that their child also felt anxious when doing maths.

The influence – or not – of anxiety

We followed 126 children from Italy from the age of three until eight, assessing their maths skills and level of maths anxiety several times along the way. We also measured their parents’ mathematics anxiety at the start of the study.

We found that, actually, having a parent with higher levels of maths anxiety did not make it more likely that their children would also have maths anxiety. This is different to what research has shown about general anxiety: growing up with a parent who suffers from anxiety is linked with a higher chance of developing anxiety.

What we did find was that the children of parents with maths anxiety did less well in maths.

Throughout the preschool years, children’s early numeracy skills were lower if their parents were more anxious about maths. And children with lower maths skills in their early years still had lower maths attainment when they were eight.

These findings are surprising, as one may expect the strong influence of school education on children’s maths skills to override any parental influence.

We also found that the relationship between parental maths anxiety and children’s mathematics development was still present when parents’ level of education was taken into account. This means that children’s lower maths achievement couldn’t be explained by their parents having a lower level of educational achievement themselves.

These findings add more nuance to the broader question of how beneficial parents taking a role in their children’s maths development is.

For literacy – learning to read and write – the evidence is unanimous: parents getting involved in shared literacy activities with their children is beneficial. If parents spend more time engaging in reading books together, telling stories or talking with their children, this has a direct positive impact on children’s outcomes.

When it comes to maths, though, the picture is more mixed. Research does show that the more parents and children engage in shared maths activities, such as counting, playing board games or measuring ingredients for cooking, the more children progress in their early numeracy. But the effect is small, and individual studies may show contradictory results.

And sometimes, parents helping their children with maths may actually be linked with their children doing worse in maths. Previous research, conducted in the United States, found that when parents were anxious about maths, their children learnt less maths, and had higher maths anxiety by the end of the school year if parents were helping them with their homework.

Learning to overcome negative feelings

Our new study adds another piece to this puzzle by further showing that parents may sometimes have a negative influence on their child’s maths development, even before children go to school.

It is important to keep in mind that parental influence is just one of several factors that relate to children’s early mathematics development. Even within the same family, siblings may show big differences in their mathematics skills and confidence. Issues with mathematics may also arise due to other factors, such as dyscalculia, a mathematical learning disability.

Nevertheless, our results suggest that, all other things being equal, parents’ feelings about mathematics play a role in children’s mathematics development.

For parents concerned about their maths anxiety, it is never too late to increase your confidence in maths and to learn functional numeracy skills. You can explore adult numeracy classes or take advantage of free online resources to help boost your confidence.

You can also embrace – and help your child adopt – a growth mindset, where you recognise that making mistakes in maths is not only okay, but an important part of the learning process.

Even just speaking more positively about maths is a good start. Parents who show interest, enthusiasm and encouragement when their children engage with maths can make a big difference.