Maternal Failure Mindsets and Parenting Styles: Exploring the Mediating Role of Maternal Attributions of Children’s Academic Failures

ABSTRACT

This study examines the mediating effects of parental attributions of children’s academic failures in the relationship between maternal failure mind-sets and their parenting styles. Participants were 323 preschool children aged 4–6 years old, with their mothers completing online questionnaires on failure mind-sets, parenting styles, and attribution of children’s academic failures. Research Findings: The results indicated that: (1) a failure-enhancing mindset was positively related to authoritative parenting and showed no significant correlation with authoritarian parenting. Conversely, a failure-debilitating mindset was negatively correlated with authoritative parenting and positively correlated with authoritarian parenting; (2) the mediating role of attribution varied depending on the mindsets. Effort attribution did not mediate the association between failure-enhancing mind-set and authoritative parenting. However, ability attribution played a significant role in mediating the relationship between failure-debilitating mind-set and authoritarian parenting. Mothers with a failure-debilitating mind-set tended to attribute children’s academic failures to a lack of ability, which subsequently increased maternal authoritarian parenting. Practice or Policy: These results provide valuable insights into the factors in influencing parenting styles, emphasizing the role of cognitive factors such as failure mind-sets and attributions of children’s academic failures. The findings suggest that cognitive interventions targeting parental beliefs, including failure mind-sets and attributions, could be crucial for improving parenting style.

Acknowledgments

The execution of this paper was a combined effort on behalf of all authors. YL and XX conceptualized and designed the study. XX conducted the data collection and statistical analysis. XX, XL, and TG drafted the initial manuscript before YL contributed to the writing of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical Statement

All procedures performed in the study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Research Ethics Committee of Shanghai Normal University. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by was funded by STI 2030—Major Projects [grant number 2022ZD0209000] and the Humanities and Social Science Foundation of Shanghai Normal University [grant number 310-AC7031-20-003010]. The funding agents had no role in the study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data; or writing of the manuscript.