More Math Talk, Less Engagement? The Mediating Role of Negative Feedback in Parent-Child Math Interactions

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 3:45 pm - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Mathematics Beyond the Classroom: Engaging Families and Affecting Communities

Abstract

Parental math talk is foundational to early math development, yet its moment-to-moment effects on children’s engagement remain unclear. Using time-lagged fixed-effects models, we analyzed naturalistic play sessions from 121 Chinese parents and their preschool children (M_age = 5.2 years; 50% girls). Increased parental math talk predicted more feedback—both positive and negative—but also led to reduced child engagement. Crucially, only negative, non–process-based feedback (e.g., unexplained or person-focused criticism) mediated this decline in engagement. These findings offer some of the first causal evidence linking math talk to disengagement via low-quality negative feedback. We highlight the need for greater attention to how feedback is delivered in early math interactions and caution against assuming that more math talk is always beneficial.

Authors

• Linxi Lu, University of Chicago

• Yiling Zhang, Boston College

• Nanyu Zhang, Boston College