Relations between parental math beliefs and emergent math skills among preschoolers from low-income households

ABSTRACT

We examined how parent math attitudes and practices relate to emergent math skills in 72 preschoolers from low-income households. Specifically, we investigated parents’ views about the importance of math learning, their confidence in teaching math, their perceptions of child interest in math, and their time spent engaging their child in math activities. For comparison, we also investigated these attitudes and practices surrounding preliteracy development. Parents rated math as significantly less important than reading and perceived their children as being significantly less interested in math than reading. Reports of confidence in teaching math and perceptions of child interest in math were positively related to time spent engaging preschoolers in math activities. In turn, global reports of time spent engaging preschoolers in math activities were positively related to preschoolers’ actual math achievement. These findings strengthen the case that parental beliefs surrounding math predict practices associated with early math development.

KEYWORDS:

• Emergent math development
• preschoolers
• parenting
• low-SES families

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this project was provided by the Overdeck Family Foundation and a Faculty Research Grant from the University of Massachusetts.

Notes on contributors

Micaela Keating

Micaela Keating (BS, University of Massachusetts Amherst) is an Education Research Analyst at the WGBH Educational Foundation (GBH). Her research interests center on leveraging technology and digital media to support equitable learning opportunities for children.

Trina Harmon

Trina Harmon (MS, University of Massachusetts Amherst) is a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts. Her research interests center on school readiness in children from low SES homes and mobile app interventions.

David H. Arnold

David H. Arnold (PhD, Stony Brook University) is a Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Massachusetts. His work aims to understand and promote kindergarten readiness in low-SES children. He is currently investigating the potential of educational apps to narrow the SES opportunity gap.