Nudging math activities: Using insights from behavioral economics to boost parental engagement in math activities with children

• In Event: 1-081 - Moving the needle on the home numeracy environment: Low-cost, feasible interventions to enhance child outcomes

Integrative Statement

Math abilities in early childhood are a robust predictor of children’s later academic skills not only in math but also in reading (Duncan et al., 2007). Despite the importance of math for children’s school readiness, parents spend more time on literacy-related activities than on math-related activities with their children on a weekly basis. Parental anxieties and misconceptions about math influence the amount of time parents spend on math activities with their children, and this in turn, can affect children’s own math abilities (Maloney, Ramirez, Gunderson, Levine, & Beilock, 2015).

In response to the growing awareness of the importance of math in early childhood, a range of interventions and programs have been designed to promote the learning of math concepts in children. Although these interventions appear to favorably improve children’s math skills, they tend to be costly and time-intensive, are designed to occur in classrooms settings, and typically do not address parental anxieties about and misconceptions toward math. To address these limitations, we applied insights informed by behavioral economics (BE)–an interdisciplinary field at the nexus of cognitive sciences, economics, and social psychology–to the Getting Ready for School (GRS) program, a preschool intervention that supports reading, math, and self-regulation skills targeting both parents and teachers as agents of change. We tested, via a randomized design, whether math specific text message content as well as digital gateways to math friendly images coupled with personalized invitations to parent math workshops affect parent take up of math learning material that subsequently translate to more friendly and frequent math activity at home.

The GRS intervention was implemented in 3 Head Start/ UPK centers. Within the eight classroom receiving GRS, we randomly assigned children to receive GRS or GRS with math-BE enhancements. Parents in the GRS-math BE group received personalized invitations to math workshops, and one supplemental weekly, personalized text-based content and once a month images that incorporated a math concept (e.g., “more/less” to normalize math terms for parents) with a math-based task. For example: (1) More/less: Ask Lee which is more-2 big plates or 3 spoons. Math is a part of your everyday life; (2) Sort & compare: Ask Lee to sort the coins in your pocket. Are there more of any kind? Math is a part of your everyday life.

In our analyses, we examined whether the BE informed enhancements predicted parent GRS math workshop attendance as well as children’s math skills, controlling for demographic factors. Results indicated that parents who received the GRS-math BE enhancements were more likely to attend math workshops with their children, B= .19, p < .05, and children scored higher in math as measured by the Woodcock Johnson Applied Problems, t=2.27, p<.05 than parents in the control group. These results suggest that light-touch, low-cost interventions might boost parental engagement in children’s math activities in ways that subsequently shape children’s math skills.

Authors

• Lisa Gennetian, Institute for Human Development and Social Change, NYU
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yana Kuchirko, New York University
  Presenting Author

• Lerzan Z Coskun, NYU
  Non-Presenting Author

• Maria Marti-Castaner, Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Helena Duch, Oak Foundation
  Non-Presenting Author