Associations among parents' math anxiety, math-related leisure activities, children's early numeracy interest and skills

Parents play a pivotal role in early numeracy development. It however remains unknown whether parents' math anxiety and math-related leisure activities concurrently contribute to children's early numeracy skills through numeracy interest. This study thus fills this research gap. One hundred eighty kindergarteners were tested on their numeracy skills; their parents were surveyed about their math anxiety, frequency of math-related leisure activities, and their children's numeracy interest. Using structural equation modeling, we found that, after controlling the effects of children's gender, age and family income on numeracy skills, parents' math anxiety had direct negative links with both numeracy interest and skills, but no mediation was found. Parents' math-related leisure activities were positively associated with numeracy skills via numeracy interest. These findings indicate that additional numeracy support may be provided to children with parents who show high levels of math anxiety and a relative little participation in math-related leisure activities.

Educational relevance and implications statement

This study demonstrated that parents' math anxiety was negatively associated with their young children's numeracy interest and skills, respectively. Additionally, their frequency of participation in math-related leisure activities was positively associated with their young children's numeracy skills through numeracy interest. Thus, results suggest that parents' negative attitudes towards math may exert impacts on their young children through the home math environment they create. These findings imply that early childhood educators may provide extra support to parents showing high math anxiety or low participation in math-related leisure activities. Parents should also be reminded not to promote young children's numeracy skills at the expense of their numeracy interest.