Breaking the Cycle of Math Anxiety: How to Support Your Child with Confidence

Does Math Make You Anxious? You're Not Alone

Does math scare you? Does the thought of having to do math problems give you that ‘ugh’ feeling in your stomach? If this is you, you’re not alone. Roughly 93% of American adults express some level of anxiety when it comes to math, with 17% reporting high levels of anxiety (Luttenberger, et al. 2018).

Unfortunately, many of us learned math in classrooms where the focus was on who could get the right answer fastest, memorizing facts, and following rote procedures. This may have left us feeling confused, lost, or like we weren’t capable of doing math. For some of us, time pressure and a lack of understanding of what we were actually doing may have led to anxiety and overwhelm when it came to math.

Can Math Anxiety Be Passed Down to Kids?

Experiencing math anxiety ourselves is hard enough, but research shows that our feelings about math can also impact our children.

One study found that “when parents are more math anxious, their children learn significantly less math over the school year and have more math anxiety by the school year’s end—but only if math-anxious parents report providing frequent help with math homework” (Maloney, et al. 2015, p. 1480).

Before you say "Oh no! I shouldn't be helping my child with their homework!" let's pause and unpack this a bit more. This statistic does NOT mean parents shouldn’t help with math! Instead, it suggests that when parents express nervousness or discomfort around math, children may pick up on those feelings and struggle more. If you feel uncomfortable or nervous when it comes to math (or specifically your child's math homework), we can help you break the math anxiety cycle.

How to Help Your Child with Math—Even If You Feel Anxious

Step 1: Acknowledge Your Own Feelings About Math

Recognizing that you have math anxiety and want to prevent passing it down is a powerful first step. Just this awareness and desire to change can make a big difference.

Step 2: Be Mindful of How You Talk About Math

The way you talk about math matters—not just when supporting your child, but also in how you speak about yourself. Try to avoid saying things like, “I’m not a math person”or “I was never good at math.” Instead, focus on growth: “I didn’t learn math this way, but I’m excited to try it with you.”

Step 3: Work Through Your Own Math Anxiety

Many of us had frustrating or discouraging experiences with math in school. It’s important to separate those experiences from your actual ability to learn math. You are not bad at math—your experiences shaped how you feel about it. Vanessa Vakharia even has a great book on undoing math trauma.

Step 4: Re-Learn Math Alongside Your Child

Math is being taught differently today, and that’s a good thing! Exploring these approaches with your child may help you understand math in a way you never did before. We witness many of the college students we teach who once felt anxious about math discover that, when taught differently, math actually makes sense—and can even be fun!

Step 5: Make Math Fun and Engaging

Play math games, do puzzles, and find everyday opportunities to integrate math into your routines. (We have a whole series on this!). The more you and your child engage with math in a positive way, the more comfortable and confident you’ll both become.

Let’s Make Math Make Sense—Together!

You don’t have to navigate this alone! We’re here to help you make sense of “new math” and build a strong foundation of math understanding and joy for your child.

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💬 Have a question or math struggle? Drop us a comment or message—we’d love to hear from you!