Being Narrow While Being Broad: The Importance of Construct Specificity and Theoretical Generality

This article considers Gunderson et al.’s (2011) analysis of the intergenerational transmission of mathematics attitudes in light of broader knowledge about the nature of attitudes. It makes two primary points. First, many of the constructs that Gunderson et al. include under the umbrella of “attitude” are theoretically and psychometrically distinct. Researchers who follow the agenda laid out by Gunderson et al. should take care to carefully define their constructs. Second, using the literature on the intergenerational transmission of implicit attitudes as a starting point, this commentary explores specific ways in which children’s mathematics attitudes may arise as a function of their parents’ and teachers’ attitudes.