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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 , around 40% of students feel nervous, helpless or anxious in everyday situations involving mathematics, such as solving problems or doing math homework.

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

, 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 math anxiety.

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

The influence—or not—of anxiety

We followed 126 children from Italy from the age of three until eight, assessing their math skills and level of math 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 math anxiety did not make it more likely that their children would also have math 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 .

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

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

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

We also found that the relationship between parental math anxiety and children's mathematics development was still present when parents' level of education was taken into account. This means that children's lower math 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 math 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 , telling stories or talking with their children, this has a direct positive impact on children's outcomes.

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

And sometimes, parents helping their children with math may actually be linked with their children doing worse in math. Previous research, conducted in the United States, found that when parents were anxious about math, their children learned less math, and had higher math 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 math 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 , 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 math anxiety, it is never too late to increase your confidence in math and to learn functional numeracy skills. You can explore adult numeracy classes or take advantage of to help boost your confidence.

You can also embrace—and help your child adopt—a , where you recognize that making mistakes in math is not only okay, but an important part of the learning process.

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

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