This study examined family beliefs and motivation as sources for the superior performance on mathematics tests by Chinese students compared with Caucasian students in the United States. Beliefs about children's performance were examined in mothers and their sixth grade children in the People's Republic of China and in Chinese-American and Caucasian-American groups in the San Francisco Bay area. Interviews covered attributions for children's relatively high and relatively low performance in mathematics, using five options: ability, effort, training at home, training at school, and luck. Mothers were asked how they would respond to specific instances of unusually high or low performance in math. ANOVAS were run on cultural/national status, generation (i.e., mothers and children), and gender of child. Results indicated that mothers in the People's Republic of China attributed relative success to the school and low performance to lack of effort, in contrast to Caucasian mothers who blamed lack of ability and the school for low achievement. Responses of Chinese-American mothers were usually closer to those of mothers from the People's Republic of China than to Caucasian parents. (Author/DST)