Individual Differences in Parental Support for Numeracy and Literacy in Early Childhood

Abstract

Past research has examined parental support for children’s math and reading skills in the early years through parents’ reports of their activities with their children in somewhat inconsistent ways. In this study, we use data from a large sample of parents (n = 259; 103 males) collected through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to examine dimensions of parental enrichment in both support for literacy and numeracy skills at home. Additionally, we examine how socioeconomic resources as well as parental beliefs relate to these dimensions of the home literacy and home numeracy environment. Factor analyses revealed two dimensions of literacy activities (i.e., passive and active literacy activities) and three dimensions of numeracy activities (i.e., numeracy applications, basic numeracy, and written numeracy activities). Income was positively associated with active literacy activities, whereas parents’ educational attainment was negatively associated with active literacy activities and written numeracy activities. Additionally, parental beliefs, including their beliefs about the importance of literacy and math skills as well as their perceived responsibility for teaching their children reading, math, and language skills, related to home literacy and numeracy activities in distinctive ways. These results suggest that future research should explore parental enrichment practices with greater nuance, particularly when examining associations with socioeconomic status.

Digital resilience in Chinese adolescents: a portrayal of the current condition, influencing factors, and improvement strategies

“…Third, parental attitudes and digital competence shape most adolescents’ primary caregivers, first educators, and online supervisors. Parental support, facilitation, and encouragement of adolescents’ Internet use and modeling of how to access the Internet safely are critical factors in developing adolescents’ digital resilience ( 45 ). Conversely, when parents restrict their children’s digital devices or Internet use or monitor their online activities without positive encouragement or support, they may inadvertently diminish their children’s ability to build digital resilience.…”

ECE Teachers’ Roles of Developing Numeracy Literacy in Special Needs Children

“…Cooperation between teachers and parents is fundamental for the development of children's literacy skills. Many parents expect their children to have good literacy and numeracy skills when starting primary school, so they also supply homebased learning for their children (Elliott et al, 2021;Salminen et al, 2021).…”

Elementary School Children’s Home Learning Environments: Mathematics, Reading, Science, and Written Language

“…However, parents emphasized reading more highly. As reviewed in Elliott et al (2021) [10], some studies have found positive associations between parents' ratings of importance and children's engagement in reading and mathematics activities [33], whereas others have not found such associations between parents' ratings of importance and children's academic skills [44].…”

“…For example, the frequency of reading different types of books during this time period is positively associated with the development of children's reading skills [3,5]. A similar relation holds for mathematics activities and skill development ( [6,7]; for review, see [8]) although the relation is less clear cut for mathematics than literacy and varies, to a degree, across demographic groups [9,10]. Research also shows that parents' beliefs about their role in their children's learning and how to foster academic skills is positively and significantly related to the frequency of children's engagement in relevant reading and mathematics activities (e.g., [11]).…”