Relations of parents’ achievement goal orientations and parenting practices to their young children’s learning behaviors

In this information age, it is important to develop children as self-regulated, lifelong learners. Some Hong Kong parents, however, find it difficult to motivate their children to learn actively and hold them responsible for their learning. This study therefore examined the relations of parents’ achievement goal orientations and parenting practices to children’s three types of learning behaviors, namely procrastination, conscientiousness and curiosity. 161 parents with kindergarten children were recruited to complete a questionnaire. Correlation analysis found that parents’ mastery goal orientation was positively related to children’s conscientiousness and curiosity. Their performance-approach and performance-avoidance goal orientations had no significant correlations with children’s learning behaviors. In addition, parents’ warmth, autonomy support and provision of structure were significant negative correlates of children’s procrastination and positive correlates of children’s conscientiousness and curiosity. These findings show that parents play an important role in children’s learning behaviors. It is thus essential for teachers to inform parents (e.g., through talks) about the importance of emphasizing the joy of mastery of new knowledge (instead of the desire to impress others with good performance) when guiding children’s learning. Parents should also be introduced to strategies of how to promote children’s conscientiousness and curiosity via everyday interactions. Copyright © 2018 70th OMEP World Assembly and Conference.