Poor in Maths? Blame it on Your Parents

Parents who excel at maths may give birth to children who are also good at the subject, a study says. The study explored intergenerational transmission – the concept of parental influence on an offspring’s behavior or psychology – in mathematic capabilities. These findings suggest an intuitive sense for numbers has been passed down – knowingly or unknowingly – from parent to child. Meaning, essentially, the math’s skills of parents tend to ‘rub off’ on their children. Researchers found that the performance levels for early school aged children on standardized mathematic tests could be reliably predicted by their parent’s performance on similar examinations.