Math anxiety is highly prevalent and thus has received considerable attention. However, only a few cross-sectional studies have examined the influence of parent–child relationships on math anxiety. We conducted a longitudinal study to test the effect of father–child and mother–child relationships on the math anxiety of children. Our sample comprised 287 elementary students who reported their father–child relationship, mother–child relationship, and math anxiety at two time points 1 year apart. Family cohesion was used as the indicator of the parent–child relationship. Cross-lagged models indicated that the father–child relationship, rather than the mother–child relationship, predicted the math anxiety of children, even after controlling for the gender of children, age of children, learning anxiety of children, social anxiety of children, learning motivation of children, math performance of children and math anxiety of parents. This study highlights the importance of the father–child relationship in the math anxiety of children.

数学焦虑非常普遍，因此受到了极大的关注。但是，只有少数横断面研究检查了父母与孩子之间的关系对数学焦虑的影响。我们进行了一项纵向研究，以检验父子关系和母子关系对孩子数学焦虑的影响。我们的样本包括287位小学生，他们在相隔1年的两个时间点报告了他们的父子关系，母子关系和数学焦虑。家庭凝聚力被用作亲子关系的指标。交叉滞后模型表明，即使在控制了孩子的性别，孩子的年龄，孩子的学习焦虑，孩子的社交焦虑，孩子的学习动机，孩子的数学表现和父母的数学焦虑。这项研究强调了父子关系在儿童数学焦虑中的重要性。