Relations Among SES and Children’s Approximate Number System, Number and Spatial Skills

• In Event: How and Why are Socioeconomic Status and Young Children’s Math Skills Linked?

Abstract

Preschool-aged children possess a range of symbolic and non-symbolic math abilities. Most 4-year-olds understand the concept of cardinality, can make patterns, and possess foundational spatial math skills such as seeing similarities in spatial relations and combining shapes to form other shapes. They also have access to the Approximate Number System (ANS) which allows them to compare sets of objects based on approximate rather than exact quantities. However, children differ substantially in their skill levels. Socioeconomic status (SES) is a well-documented predictor of early math abilities in general; however, it is unclear whether differences are consistent for subdomains of early mathematical abilities. For example, we hypothesize that children’s spatial math skills and ANS acuity may show less of an SES gradient because these skills emerge early in infancy and are thus less susceptible to SES influence. Furthermore, it is unclear whether parental education and family income exert independent roles in shaping early math skills.

To address these questions, we tested a socioeconomically heterogeneous sample of 152 4-year-olds on two tasks to assess their number skills (Verbal Counting, Give-N (Wynn, 1992)), a standardized math assessment (Woodcock-Johnson Applied Problems [W-J AP], Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2001), three tasks to assess their spatial math (Geometric Sensitivity (Dillon et al., 2017), Children’s Mental Transformation Task (Levine et al., 1999), Teacher Based Patterning Assessment (Zippert, Loehr, & Rittle-Johnson, 2018)), and a non-symbolic number comparison task designed to measure ANS acuity (Halberda, Mazzocco & Feigenson, 2008). Given that children’s self-regulation and executive function skills are both typically associated with SES and math, we also measured children’s self-regulation using an experimenter-based impulsivity rating (Preschool Self-Regulation Assessment, Smith-Donald et al., 2007) and two direct measures of children’s inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility (Dimensional Change Card Sort (Zelazo, 2006), Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders (McClelland et al., 2014)), which were combined into an executive functioning composite (EF). We estimated SES gaps in math abilities using OLS-regression models. We then explored whether self-regulation and executive functioning mediated the SES-math associations.

Controlling for child age, marital status, and race/ethnicity, results show SES gaps in 4-year-olds’ math (Table 1). Children of parents with bachelor’s degrees or higher perform just over .5 of a standard deviation (SD) better in basic number skills than children whose parents have less education. ANS acuity was linked to family income, with children from families with higher income exhibiting better ANS acuity (.13 SD per natural log increase in income). Finally, W-J AP was related to both parental education and income (.60 and .10 SD, respectively). Child self-regulation and executive functioning skills were pathways through which income and education related to math skills (Table 2). In particular, higher parental education predicted more advanced EF skills, which were beneficial for children’s spatial, number, and ANS skills. Additionally, household income predicted better self-regulation skill, which related to enhanced ANS acuity. Finally, the associations between income and education with W-J AP were jointly mediated by their links to self-regulation and EF.

Authors

• Melissa E Libertus, University of Pittsburgh
  Presenting Author

• Portia Miller, University of Pittsburgh
  Non-Presenting Author

• Leanne Elliott, University of Pittsburgh
  Non-Presenting Author

• Heather J. Bachman, University of Pittsburgh
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, University of Pittsburgh
  Non-Presenting Author