The Influence Of Parents’ Theories Of Intelligence On Children’s Theories Of Intelligence

As children grew up,they constantly build the beliefs of intelligence,which refers to viewing intelligence as stable and unchangeable(intellectual entity mindset)or continuously changing(intellectual development mindset).The formation of children’s theories of intelligence plays an important role in predicting their academic achievement and behavioral adaptation.When considering the contributors of children’s view of intelligence,researchers found that parents’ intelligence mindset have a significant impact on the formation of children’s intelligence mindset.However,the specific mechanism of this impact is still unclear.In this study,627 students from Grade 4,Grade 8,and Grade 10 participated in this study and reported their theories of intelligence.Their parents also filled the measures of theories of intelligence,the forms and frequency of parents’ daily praise and criticism.This study first explored whether parental praise and criticism mediated the associations between parental mindset and children’s mindset;and we further explored whether the mediating effect of praise and criticism is moderated by children’s age.The first part supported that parent’s growth intelligence mind-sets and praise lead to children’s growth intelligence mind-sets irrespective of children’s grade,that is,the more parents tend to hold the growth intelligence mindsets,the more their children tend to form growth intelligence mindsets;and parental person-praise and process-praise in daily life play a partial mediating role in the relationship between parents’ and children’s intelligence mindset.The second part found that age moderated the relationship between parents’ intelligence mindset and parents’ process-praise,whereas parent’s growth mindset could be a source of their process-praise,which is significant in early adolescents,that is,parents with growth intelligence mindsets tended to give more process praise to their children.These studies not only enrich the theory of implicit intelligence and expected value theory but also provide parents practical guidance to foster their children a growth mindset of intelligence,and thus optimize their development.