The Intergenerational Transmission of Fear of Failure

The intergenerational transmission of fear of failure was examined in two studies with undergraduates and their parents. Parent-undergraduate concordance in fear of failure was documented for mothers and fathers, controlling for parents’ and undergraduate’s impression management and self-deceptive enhancement response tendencies. Love withdrawal was validated as a mediator of parent-undergraduate concordance in fear of failure for mothers but not for fathers. Mothers’ and fathers’ fear of failure was also a positive predictor of undergraduate’s adoption of performance-avoidance goals in the classroom, and undergraduate’s fear of failure was shown to mediate this relationship. Fathers’ fear of failure was also a negative predictor of undergraduate’s mastery goal adoption, and this relationship was likewise mediated by undergraduate’s fear of failure. The results are discussed in terms of the reorienting of positive, appetitive achievement motivation toward negative, aversive achievement motivation.

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