Children's attitudes toward mistakes: Profiles and associations with parental predictors and academic-related outcomes

Making mistakes is essential to learning, yet some students resist them emotionally and behaviorally despite recognizing their benefits. This study focused on children's attitudes toward mistakes (including attitudinal cognition, affect, and behavior) and investigated their potential parental predictors and academic outcomes among 473 Chinese children with variable- and person-centered approaches. First, variable-centered results showed that perceived parental failure mindset was linked to the three dimensions of attitude toward mistakes that further related to academic outcomes, whereas perceived parental social comparison was primarily associated with attitudinal affect. Second, person-centered results derived from latent profile analysis showed three profiles of attitudes toward mistakes (Positive, Mildly Negative, and Ambivalent). Third, the Positive profile emerged as the most adaptive with greater academic persistence and less self-handicapping; yet both perceived parental negative failure mindset and social comparison reduced the likelihood of children belonging to this profile. Findings indicate that behavioral, cognitive, and affective responses to mistakes are not always aligned and highlight potential avenues (e.g., guiding parents' belief and parenting behaviors) to shape children's adaptive attitudes toward mistakes and further development.

Educational relevance and implication

By identifying profiles of mistake attitudes, we found that children’s thoughts and feelings about mistakes do not always align with their actual behaviors targeting mistakes. When children perceive their parents holding a failure-is-harmful mindset or frequently comparing them to others, they may develop heightened negative attitudes toward mistakes and in turn show decreased academic persistence and increased handicapping behaviors. Given these findings, considering both parental belief systems and individual mistake attitudes may be beneficial when exploring strategies to promote children's effective learning. Parents may be encouraged to embrace adaptive beliefs and avoid negative parenting practices; furthermore, both parents and teachers may consider observing how children respond to mistakes and attempt to normalize them as part of learning.