Parents’ Views of Failure Predict Children’s Fixed and Growth Intelligence Mind-Sets

What is it about?

Children’s intelligence mind-sets (i.e., their beliefs about whether intelligence is fixed or malleable) robustly influence their motivation and learning. Yet, surprisingly, research has not linked parents’ intelligence mind-sets to their children’s. We tested the hypothesis that a different belief of parents—their failure mind-sets—may be more visible to children and therefore more prominent in shaping their beliefs. Across several studies, we find that parents who see failure as harmful focus on their children’s performance and ability rather than on their children’s learning, and their children, in turn, tend to believe that intelligence is fixed rather than malleable.

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Why is it important?

It is important for parents, educators, and coaches to know that the growth mindset in their heads may not get through to children unless they use these learning-focused practices, like discussing what their children could learn from a failure and how they might improve in the future.