Empowering Young Minds

The Role of Parents in Cultivating a Growth Mindset in Children

Abstract

Home is the first and most powerful learning environment for children; parents play a crucial role in children's holistic development." Parenting styles have a significant impact on children's self-perceptions and learning behaviours. Parents' input impacts children's ways of coping and presenting a positive growth orientation and effort. The review follows a structured conceptual synthesis approach. Relevant peer-reviewed articles published between 1998 and 2025 were systematically searched from Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, and Google Scholar using relevant keywords such as “growth mindset,” “parental beliefs,” “process praise,” “autonomy support,” “motivation,” etc. Inclusion criteria for selecting articles were their “empirical or theoretical relevance to parenting and motivational development in children.” Exclusion criteria were “non-peer-reviewed sources,” “studies focusing exclusively on adult populations,” and “lack of clear methodological reporting.” The findings indicate that “effort-focused feedback,” “autonomy support,” and “helpful failure responses” relate to children’s persistence and coping behaviours. However, meta-analytic findings indicate that “growth mindset interventions’ effect on academic achievement is small and context-dependent,” thus indicating the role of relational reinforcement in family systems. The review is a practitioner synthesis that also critically engages with current debates on effect size heterogeneity, replication issues, and cultural moderation.