2021, Vol.34, No.3

THE KOREAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 1.67

pISSN : 1229-0718 / eISSN : 2671-6542
https://journal.kci.go.kr/baldal

The math ability mindset refers to implicit beliefs about the malleability of math ability. Some believe that math ability can be improved by putting in effort, while others believe that math ability is fixed and cannot be changed as a result of effort. Such a mindset can influence an individual’s affect, cognition, and behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine how mothers’ mindsets about math ability influence negative affect and attitude toward math (math anxiety) and math interaction with their children. For this purpose, the study focused on mothers of 5-year-old children. The research results are as follows. First, mothers with a fixed mindset tend to have a high levels of math anxiety. In other words, mothers who believe that math ability is fixed so that it cannot be changed by individual effort are likely to have a high fear of math and avoid situations involving math. Second, mothers’ mindsets predict how often they engage in daily interactions with their children while doing math. Compared to those with a growth mindset, mothers with a fixed mindset tend to engage in less daily math conversations and activities with their children. Third, mothers’ math anxiety mediates the link between mothers’ mindsets and math interactions with children. Mothers with a fixed mindset tend to have a high level of math anxiety, which in turn lowers the mother-child interaction about math. This study shows that mother’ cognitive and emotional changes towards mathematics should be adjusted in order to promote behavioral changes in mother-child interaction.

This study aimed to identify the relationship between the intensive mothering ideology and mental well-being, focusing on the mediating effects of self-compassion and parenting stress. The study participants were mothers who had home-schooling experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and children aged 1-9 years. Survey data from 372 mothers were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Intensive mothering ideology was negatively associated with both self-compassion and mental well-being, but positively predicted parenting stress. Self-compassion was negatively associated with parenting stress but positively predicted mental well-being. Additionally, there was a negative relationship between parenting stress and mental well-being. Self-compassion and parenting stress both showed significant mediating effects on the relationship between intensive mothering ideology and mental well-being. Furthermore, the double mediating effect was significant for the relationship between intensive mothering ideology and mental well-being. Finally, intervention strategies were suggested to improve mothers’ well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study aimed to examine whether individual characteristics, such as happiness, goal perception, grit, age, and gender, caused differences in reactivity to failure (i.e., failure-is-enhancing mindset, failure tolerance, learned helplessness, and fear of failure). A total of 449 undergraduate students aged 18-25 were recruited for a web-based survey study. The multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC) model offered a good fit of the data and indicated that individuals were significantly different in their reactivity to failure. Specifically, both happier individuals and those with clearer goal-perception reacted more positively to all failure-associated reactivities (p<.05). However, other relationships such as those between grittiness, learned helplessness, and fear of failure; age and reactivity types other than fear of failure; and gender and fear of failure, were not significant. The implications and limitations of this study are further discussed.