Associations Between Children’s Numeracy Competencies, Mothers’ and Fathers’ Mathematical Beliefs, and Numeracy Activities at Home
Children’s numeracy competencies are not only relevant for their academic achievement, but also later in life. The development of early numeracy competencies is influenced by children’s learning environment. Here, the home numeracy environment (HNE) and parent’s own beliefs about mathematics play an...
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-04-01
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Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.835433/full |
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author | Anna Mues Astrid Wirth Efsun Birtwistle Frank Niklas |
author_facet | Anna Mues Astrid Wirth Efsun Birtwistle Frank Niklas |
author_sort | Anna Mues |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Children’s numeracy competencies are not only relevant for their academic achievement, but also later in life. The development of early numeracy competencies is influenced by children’s learning environment. Here, the home numeracy environment (HNE) and parent’s own beliefs about mathematics play an important role for children’s numeracy competencies. However, only a few studies explicitly tested these associations separately for mothers and fathers. In our study, we assessed mothers’ and fathers’ mathematical gender stereotypes, self-efficacy and their beliefs on the importance of mathematical activities at home, and tested their associations with parents’ numeracy activities and children’s numeracy competencies in a sample of N = 160 children (n = 80 girls) with an average age of M = 59.15 months (SD = 4.05). Both, fathers and mothers regarded boys as being more competent in mathematics than girls. Fathers when compared to mothers reported a greater mathematical self-efficacy. Further, only mothers’ self-efficacy was associated with the frequency of numeracy activities with the study child. In contrast, only fathers’ beliefs on the importance of mathematics was associated with their numeracy activities which, in turn, predicted children’s numeracy competencies. However, the non-invariant constructs and varying results lead to the question whether a revision of existing scales assessing parental beliefs and home numeracy activities is needed to investigate differences of mothers and fathers and their potential associations with children’s numeracy outcomes. |
first_indexed | 2024-12-12T22:07:33Z |
format | Article |
id | doaj.art-5f4ef8f095d845978a0d5497c3f81e60 |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 1664-1078 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-12-12T22:07:33Z |
publishDate | 2022-04-01 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | Article |
series | Frontiers in Psychology |
spelling | doaj.art-5f4ef8f095d845978a0d5497c3f81e602022-12-22T00:10:20ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782022-04-011310.3389/fpsyg.2022.835433835433Associations Between Children’s Numeracy Competencies, Mothers’ and Fathers’ Mathematical Beliefs, and Numeracy Activities at HomeAnna MuesAstrid WirthEfsun BirtwistleFrank NiklasChildren’s numeracy competencies are not only relevant for their academic achievement, but also later in life. The development of early numeracy competencies is influenced by children’s learning environment. Here, the home numeracy environment (HNE) and parent’s own beliefs about mathematics play an important role for children’s numeracy competencies. However, only a few studies explicitly tested these associations separately for mothers and fathers. In our study, we assessed mothers’ and fathers’ mathematical gender stereotypes, self-efficacy and their beliefs on the importance of mathematical activities at home, and tested their associations with parents’ numeracy activities and children’s numeracy competencies in a sample of N = 160 children (n = 80 girls) with an average age of M = 59.15 months (SD = 4.05). Both, fathers and mothers regarded boys as being more competent in mathematics than girls. Fathers when compared to mothers reported a greater mathematical self-efficacy. Further, only mothers’ self-efficacy was associated with the frequency of numeracy activities with the study child. In contrast, only fathers’ beliefs on the importance of mathematics was associated with their numeracy activities which, in turn, predicted children’s numeracy competencies. However, the non-invariant constructs and varying results lead to the question whether a revision of existing scales assessing parental beliefs and home numeracy activities is needed to investigate differences of mothers and fathers and their potential associations with children’s numeracy outcomes.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.835433/fullparental beliefshome numeracy environmentnumeracy competenciesgender stereotypesself-efficacyimportance of mathematical activities at home |
spellingShingle | Anna Mues Astrid Wirth Efsun Birtwistle Frank Niklas Associations Between Children’s Numeracy Competencies, Mothers’ and Fathers’ Mathematical Beliefs, and Numeracy Activities at Home Frontiers in Psychology parental beliefs home numeracy environment numeracy competencies gender stereotypes self-efficacy importance of mathematical activities at home |
title | Associations Between Children’s Numeracy Competencies, Mothers’ and Fathers’ Mathematical Beliefs, and Numeracy Activities at Home |
title_full | Associations Between Children’s Numeracy Competencies, Mothers’ and Fathers’ Mathematical Beliefs, and Numeracy Activities at Home |
title_fullStr | Associations Between Children’s Numeracy Competencies, Mothers’ and Fathers’ Mathematical Beliefs, and Numeracy Activities at Home |
title_full_unstemmed | Associations Between Children’s Numeracy Competencies, Mothers’ and Fathers’ Mathematical Beliefs, and Numeracy Activities at Home |
title_short | Associations Between Children’s Numeracy Competencies, Mothers’ and Fathers’ Mathematical Beliefs, and Numeracy Activities at Home |
title_sort | associations between children s numeracy competencies mothers and fathers mathematical beliefs and numeracy activities at home |
topic | parental beliefs home numeracy environment numeracy competencies gender stereotypes self-efficacy importance of mathematical activities at home |
url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.835433/full |
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