The Role of Parents’ Math Beliefs and Affect in Children’s Math Adjustment

• In Event: Looking Beyond Quantity: Using Surveys and Observations to Examine the Nature of Parents’ Mathematical Engagement

Abstract

Parents’ math beliefs and affect have the potential to shape their parenting around math, and thus children’s math learning. For example, in Eccles and colleagues’ (1983) expectancy-value theory, parents’ perceptions of children’s math competence and the value they place on math influence their involvement in math activities which contributes to children’s math motivation and achievement. More recently, there has been a focus on parents’ math anxiety and its role in parents’ math practices and children’s math learning (e.g., Maloney et al., 2015). Several beliefs (e.g., failure-as-constructive mindsets) suggested to be important to children’s motivation and achievement in the academic context (e.g., Haimovitz & Dweck, 2016), however, have not been examined in the math context specifically.
The current research addresses this issue by drawing from multiple theoretical perspectives to examine a breadth of math beliefs and affect among parents to identify which beliefs and affect matter for children’s math learning. The research also uses a longitudinal design to rule out the possibility that children rather than parents drive the effects of parents’ math beliefs and affect. This is critical given that with only a few exceptions (e.g., Frome & Eccles, 1998; Oh et al., 2022), the research to date on parents’ beliefs and affect, as well as children’s motivation and achievement have relied on concurrent designs (e.g., Haimovitz & Dweck, 2016) or have examined only the link with parenting practices (e.g., Wu et al., 2022).
We used a two-wave longitudinal design spanning a year to examine the role of parents’ math beliefs and affect in children’s math motivation and achievement over time. Participants were parents (N = 615; 83% mothers; 33% with less than a college degree; 60% white, 22% Black) and their young elementary school children (Mage = 7.17 years; 50% girls). Parents reported on their perceptions of children’s math competence, the value they place on math, their feelings of efficacy in supporting children’s math learning, their growth mindsets about math ability, their math failure is constructive mindsets, and their math anxiety. Children’s preference for math challenge, math anxiety, and math achievement were also assessed. (For measure information, see Table 1.)
Multiple linear regression analyses predicting children’s math adjustment at Wave 2 from their math adjustment at Wave 1 along with other covariates and each of parent belief or affect separately indicated that parents’ perceptions of children’s math competence were the largest predictor of children’s math adjustment (see Table 2), ps < .05; More positive perceptions predicted greater preference for math challenge, dampened math anxiety, and enhanced math achievement over time. Parent’s math anxiety predicted dampened preference for math challenge and math achievement, but not math anxiety, among children over time, ps < .05. Follow-up analyses indicated these effects were distinct from of those of parents’ perceptions of children’s math competence. Additional analyses will look at moderators and mediators of parents’ math beliefs and affect.

Authors

• Carolyn MacDonald, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Presenting Author

• Michael Barger, University of Georgia

• Eva Pomerantz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign