New research suggests that a child's math anxiety could be passed down from their parents, Education Week reported.

A team of researchers led by University of Chicago psychological scientists Sian Beilock and Susan Levine found that children of math-anxious parents learned less math over the school year and were more likely to be math-anxious themselves. However, this only happened when these parents provided frequent help on the child's math homework.

Previous studies from this group have found that when teachers are anxious about math, their students learn less math during the school year. The current study is novel in that it establishes a link between parents' and children's math anxiety.

"We often don't think about how important parents' own attitudes are in determining their children's academic achievement. But our work suggests that if a parent is walking around saying 'Oh, I don't like math' or 'This stuff makes me nervous,' kids pick up on this messaging and it affects their success," Beilock explained.

For the study, researchers collected and analyzed data from more than 430 first- and second-grade students and their primary caregivers, Education Week reported. Children were assessed in math achievement and math anxiety at both the beginning and end of the school year. As a control, the team also assessed reading achievement, which they found was not related to parents' math anxiety. Parents completed a questionnaire about their own nervousness and anxiety around math and how often they helped their children with math homework.

The researchers believe the link between parents' math anxiety and children's math performance stems more from math attitudes than genetics.

"Although it is possible that there is a genetic component to math anxiety, the fact that parents' math anxiety negatively affected children only when they frequently helped them with math homework points to the need for interventions focused on both decreasing parents' math anxiety and scaffolding their skills in homework help," researchers wrote.

Maloney said the study suggests that parent preparation is essential to effective math homework help.

"We can't just tell parents--especially those who are anxious about math--'Get involved,'" Maloney explained. "We need to develop better tools to teach parents how to most effectively help their children with math."

These tools might include math books, computer and traditional board games, or Internet apps that allow parents to interact with their children around math in positive ways.

The findings are detailed in the journal Psychological Science.