Numeracy Parenting Practices and Children’s Numeracy Engagement: Which Practices Matter?

• In Event: Parents’ Role in Children’s Numeracy Development: A Focus on Numeracy Gesturing and Talk

Abstract

Research on the role of parenting in early numeracy has largely focused on the type of cognitive input and scaffolding parents provide to children as manifest in the level (i.e., basic vs. advanced) and structure (i.e., prompts vs. statements) of parents’ numeracy talk. These studies suggest parents relatively advanced numeracy talk and their numeracy prompts are beneficial, presumably because they provide an opportunity for children to explore and practice challenging math with parents’ support (e.g., Eason et al., 2021; Gunderson & Levine, 2011). Less examined has been the motivational resources provided through parenting (e.g., Pomerantz et al., 2012). When parents support children’s autonomy (e.g., by giving them choice) rather than using control (e.g., by issuing directives) in their numeracy interactions with children, they may facilitate children’s feelings of autonomy and competence around numeracy, thereby enhancing their numeracy learning (e.g., Oh et al., 2022). The current research examined whether parents’ autonomy support (vs. control) in the numeracy context makes distinct contributions to children’s numeracy engagement in addition to the level and structure of parents’ numeracy talk.

To this end, parents (N = 529; 80% mothers; 33% with less than a college degree; 65% white, 20% Black) and their young elementary school children (Mage = 7.49 years; 49% girls) were videotaped for 12 min during a challenging numeracy activity that involved the addition of coins. As shown in Table 1, the level (i.e., 1 = most basic to 6 = most advanced) and structure (i.e., prompts and statements) along with parents’ autonomy support (e.g., treating child as a leader and waiting for child) and control (e.g., taking over and telling final answers) were coded each minute. Children’s engagement of numeracy strategies (i.e., 0 = did not use the strategy, 1 = used the strategy) and the highest level of strategies they used (1 = most basic to 6 = most advanced) were also coded each minute (see Table 1). All coding was carried out by pairs of trained coders, with average ICCs and Cohen Kappas greater than .71.

Multilevel modeling was used to predict children’s numeracy engagement each minute from all the parenting practices simultaneously the prior minute adjusting for children’s engagement in that prior minute. As shown in Table 2, these analyses revealed that parents’ prompts, particularly when they were more advanced, predicted children’s subsequent engagement, Cohen’s ds > 0.17. In addition, parents’ autonomy support (vs. control) also predicted more frequent, Cohen’s |d|s > 0.07, but not advanced, Cohen’s |d|s < .01, engagement among children. These effects were distinct from those of parents’ prompts. The different parenting practices did not interact with one another. The results suggest that although autonomy supportive (vs. controlling) parenting practices in the numeracy context may be important for getting children engaged in this context, advanced prompts are needed for children’s use of advanced numeracy strategies.

Authors

• Jiawen Wu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Presenting Author

• Dajung Oh, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Daniel C. Hyde, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Eva Pomerantz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign