When beliefs matter most: Examining children’s math achievement in the context of parental math anxiety

Silver, Alex M.; Elliott, Leanne; Libertus, Melissa E.

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104992

Cited by 29 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…While some studies have found that attitudes play a role in the HNE [ 24 , 42 , 43 , 96 , 97 ], others have failed to find such an effect [ 20 , 22 ]. However, there is more consistent evidence that parents who have relatively high expectations regarding their child’s math achievement also report more frequent numeracy practices with their children [ 18 , 19 , 22 , 24 , 30 , 46 , 98 – 100 ]. For example, both Zippert and Rittle-Johnson and Hart and colleagues [ 62 , 95 ] have shown that parents’ beliefs about their children math abilities are related to the early math environment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In other words, the HNE might relate to some aspects of mathematical skills but not others. Although the large majority of studies on the HNE have used composite math scores (e.g., [ 10 , 20 , 30 , 31 , 35 , 43 , 45 , 46 ]), there is growing evidence that the relation between the HNE and children’s math skills may depend upon the type of skill measured [ 22 , 24 , 41 , 47 ]. For example, Skwarchuk and colleagues [ 22 ] found that the frequency of formal home numeracy practices relates to symbolic number knowledge, but not to non-symbolic arithmetic skills.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The present study investigates the relation between home numeracy practices and math skills of a sample of French early elementary schoolers (2 nd and 3 rd grades) who underwent more comprehensive behavioral testing than what is usually achieved in the HNE literature [ 10 , 30 , 41 , 46 ]. Specifically, children were tested on a range of standardized math competences (non-symbolic quantity processing, symbolic number understanding, transcoding, counting, arithmetic calculation, and arithmetic fluency), as well as on measures of general cognitive functioning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The relation between home numeracy practices and a variety of math skills in elementary school children

et al. 2021

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A growing number of studies suggest that the frequency of numeracy experiences that parents provide at home may relate to children’s mathematical development. However, the relation between home numeracy practices and children’s numerical skills is complex and might depend upon both the type and difficulty of activities, as well as the type of math skills. Studies have also argued that this relation may be driven by factors that are not systematically controlled for in the literature, including socio-economic status (SES), parental math skills and children’s IQ. Finally, as most prior studies have focused on preschoolers, it remains unclear to what extent there remains a relation between the home numeracy environment and math skills when children are in elementary school. In the present study, we tested an extensive range of math skills in 66 8-year-olds, including non-symbolic quantity processing, symbolic number understanding, transcoding, counting, and mental arithmetic. We also asked parents to complete a questionnaire about their SES, academic expectations, academic attitudes, and the numeracy practices that they provide at home. Finally, we measured their arithmetic fluency as a proxy for parental math skills. Over and above differences in socio-economic status, parental arithmetic fluency, child’s IQ, and time spent with the child, we found a positive relation between the frequency of formal numeracy practices that were at or above grade level and two separate measures of mental arithmetic. We further found that the frequency of these advanced formal numeracy practices was related to parents’ academic expectations. Therefore, our study shows that home numeracy experiences predict arithmetic skills in elementary school children, but only when those activities are formal and sufficiently challenging for children.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The relation between home numeracy practices and a variety of math skills in elementary school children

et al. 2021

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“…Individual caregiver and child characteristics including abilities, attitudes, beliefs, expectations, and anxieties are impor tant for understanding links between the HME and children's mathematics outcomes (Berkowitz et al, 2015;Cheung et al, 2020;Davis-Kean & Sexton, 2009;del Río et al, 2019del Río et al, , 2020Elliott & Bachman, 2018;Elliott et al, 2020;Niklas, Cohrssen, & Tayler, 2016;Niklas & Schneider, 2014;Serpell, Baker, & Sonnenschein, 2005;Silver, Elliott, & Libertus, 2020;Sonnenschein, Metzger, & Thompson, 2016). Within the area of the HME, most work has focused on activities in which children and caregivers engage (e.g., Hart et al, 2016;Skwarchuk et al, 2014).…”

Section: Core Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Next directions in measurement of the home mathematics environment: An international and interdisciplinary perspective

et al. 2021

Self Cite

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This article synthesizes findings from an international virtual conference, funded by the United States National Science Foundation, focused on the home mathematics environment (HME). In light of inconsistencies and gaps in research investigating relations between the HME and children’s outcomes, the purpose of the conference was to discuss actionable steps and considerations for future work. The conference was composed of international researchers with a wide range of expertise and backgrounds. Presentations and discussions during the conference centered broadly on the need to better operationalize and measure the HME as a construct—focusing on issues related to child, family, and community factors, country and cultural factors, and the cognitive and affective characteristics of caregivers and children. Results of the conference and a subsequent writing workshop include a synthesis of core questions and key considerations for the field of research on the HME. Findings highlight the need for the field at large to use multi-method measurement approaches to capture nuances in the HME, and to do so with increased international and interdisciplinary collaboration, open science practices, and communication among scholars.

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“…For example, most previous work has looked at parent math anxiety when parents are doing the math themselves, but not when they are doing math with their children (see Refs. 7,13,14). Interestingly, work accounting for the contextual nature of math anxiety has been conducted on teachers, as a recent measure of teacher math anxiety is composed of general math anxiety and teaching-specific math anxiety 15 .…”

Section: Conceptualization Of Math Anxietymentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptualizing the Factor Structure of Parents’ Math Anxiety and Associations with Children’s Mathematics Skills

Cosso¹,

Ellis²,

O'Rear³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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There is a growing literature examining the association between parents’ math anxiety and children’s mathematics skills. Previous research has considered parents’ math anxiety as a unidimensional construct that primarily focused on parents’ experiences doing mathematics themselves. However, this research did not account for parents’ experiences when doing mathematics with their children. Thus, there were two goals of the present study: 1) to identify the structure of parents’ math anxiety when considering context-dependent situations, and 2) to determine whether parent math anxiety was related to children’s early numeracy skills. We conducted a series of confirmatory factor analyses using a sample of 155 preschool children (M age = 4.20 years, SD = 0.71; 51% female). The best-fitting model of parents’ math anxiety was a bifactor model, suggesting parents’ math anxiety was best conceptualized as a multidimensional construct. However, structural equation models showed parent math anxiety was not a significant predictor of children’s numeracy performance. These findings provide a foundation for understanding parents’ math anxiety as multidimensional and raise questions about potential mechanisms that may explain prior work finding mixed relations between math anxiety and children’s numeracy performance.

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When beliefs matter most: Examining children’s math achievement in the context of parental math anxiety

Cited by 29 publications

References 52 publications

The relation between home numeracy practices and a variety of math skills in elementary school children

The relation between home numeracy practices and a variety of math skills in elementary school children

Next directions in measurement of the home mathematics environment: An international and interdisciplinary perspective

Conceptualizing the Factor Structure of Parents’ Math Anxiety and Associations with Children’s Mathematics Skills

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