Associations Between Children’s Numeracy Competencies, Mothers’ and Fathers’ Mathematical Beliefs, and Numeracy Activities at Home

Abstract

Children’s numeracy competencies are not only relevant for their academic achievement, but also later in life. The development of early numeracy competencies is influenced by children’s learning environment. Here, the home numeracy environment (HNE) and parent’s own beliefs about mathematics play an important role for children’s numeracy competencies. However, only a few studies explicitly tested these associations separately for mothers and fathers. In our study, we assessed mothers’ and fathers’ mathematical gender stereotypes, self-efficacy and their beliefs on the importance of mathematical activities at home, and tested their associations with parents’ numeracy activities and children’s numeracy competencies in a sample of N = 160 children (n = 80 girls) with an average age of M = 59.15 months (SD = 4.05). Both, fathers and mothers regarded boys as being more competent in mathematics than girls. Fathers when compared to mothers reported a greater mathematical self-efficacy. Further, only mothers’ self-efficacy was associated with the frequency of numeracy activities with the study child. In contrast, only fathers’ beliefs on the importance of mathematics was associated with their numeracy activities which, in turn, predicted children’s numeracy competencies. However, the non-invariant constructs and varying results lead to the question whether a revision of existing scales assessing parental beliefs and home numeracy activities is needed to investigate differences of mothers and fathers and their potential associations with children’s numeracy outcomes.

Home learning environments and family socioeconomic status: Implications on early learning attainments in Tanzania

“…Moreover, they contribute to the ongoing debate about the role of parental beliefs, expectations and home practices in children’s early development and learning in a context with an acute shortage of educational resources (Ndijuye and Tandika, 2022a, 2022b). The role of parental beliefs in influencing children’s early math and reading could be the result of positive parental beliefs towards math (Mues et al, 2022), in a predominantly paternalistic communities, fathers’ beliefs about the importance of mathematics or reading (Niklas et al, 2020). However, in the context of this study, these are still speculations which should be empirically verified.…”

App-based learning for kindergarten children at home (Learning4Kids): Study protocol for cohort 2 and the school assessments

“…Here, parents were asked about their own self-efficacy, gender stereotypes toward mathematics and literacy, and their beliefs and attitudes towards mathematical activities at home. Parents' self-efficacy was measured with six items (e.g., "At school, I was good at math"; Mother's Cronbach's α = .75; Father's Cronbach's α = .77) [57][58][59]. Parental gender stereotypes were measured with six items including "Girls need less assistance than boys in mathematics" (Mother's Cronbach's α = .87; Father's Cronbach's α = .88) [57,60].…”

“…Parents' self-efficacy was measured with six items (e.g., "At school, I was good at math"; Mother's Cronbach's α = .75; Father's Cronbach's α = .77) [57][58][59]. Parental gender stereotypes were measured with six items including "Girls need less assistance than boys in mathematics" (Mother's Cronbach's α = .87; Father's Cronbach's α = .88) [57,60]. Further, parents were asked with three items to evaluate the importance of their child doing mathematical activities at home (e.g., "It is important to me that my child does mathematical activities at home"; Mother's Cronbach's α = .50; Father's Cronbach's α = .62) [57].…”

“…Parental gender stereotypes were measured with six items including "Girls need less assistance than boys in mathematics" (Mother's Cronbach's α = .87; Father's Cronbach's α = .88) [57,60]. Further, parents were asked with three items to evaluate the importance of their child doing mathematical activities at home (e.g., "It is important to me that my child does mathematical activities at home"; Mother's Cronbach's α = .50; Father's Cronbach's α = .62) [57]. These additional items were adapted for our study [61] and values from 0 to 4 were assigned, with 0 indicating "not true at all" and 4 indicating "completely true".…”

“…Given that this study includes comprehensive longitudinal assessments, numerous analyses are conceivable. Consequently, in addition to the testing for potential short-and long-term intervention effects on children's literacy and mathematical competencies (see [26]), other research questions, for instance, concerning the home learning environment can be conducted (e.g., [8,57]). Here, structural equation modelling can be used to analyse the complex longitudinal associations between the study variables and children's development in the family context.…”