Effects of Early Numeracy Activities on Mathematics Achievement and Affect: Parental Value and Child Gender Conditions and Socioeconomic Status Mediation

Abstract

Past studies have examined the models for the effects of early numeracy activities on children's later mathematics achievement, with parental values as a precondition and socioeconomic status (SES) as an interaction measure with numeracy activities. This study proposed models of (1) the multiple effects of early numeracy activities, conditioned by parental value, on mathematics achievement and affect (e.g. confidence and interest) and (2) the multiple effects to be mediated by SES and early numeracy activities conditioned by parental value and child gender. The proposed models were examined using structural equation modeling with data from Taiwanese parental reports and child grade-4 tests and reports (N = 4,291; 49% girls) of TIMSS 2015. Three major results go beyond those previous research findings and may provide recommendations for educational practices. (1) Early numeracy activities have effects on mathematics confidence and interest in addition to achievement. (2) SES mediates the effects of early numeracy activities on achievement and confidence but not on interest. The mediating effect of SES suggests that high-quality educational provision should be provided during early numeracy activities. (3) Parents provide fewer numeracy activities for girls, which suggests that parents should provide more early numeracy activities to girls.

Examining the Effect of Students Early Numeracy Activities at Home on Later Mathematics Achievement via Early Numeracy Competencies and Self-Efficacy Beliefs

“…Similarly, Jordan et al (2010) examined the association between numeracy competencies at the beginning of kindergarten and first and third-grade mathematics achievement and found positive associations between them. Additionally, studies on Finland (Aunio & Niemivirta, 2010), Hong Kong (Zhu & Chiu, 2019), and Taiwan (Chiu, 2018) reported similar results.…”

“…Studies have reported that early numeracy competencies acquired before starting elementary school affect students' later mathematics achievement (Aunio & Niemivirta, 2010;Chiu, 2018;Duncan et al, 2007;Galindo & Sonnenschein, 2015;Geary et al, 2018;Jordan et al, 2010;Siegler, 2016;Zhu & Chiu, 2019). Because early numeracy competencies work as the basis for acquiring new mathematical knowledge in school, students with higher schoolentry numeracy competencies tend to have higher mathematics achievement in elementary school.…”

“…For example, parents with high SES can offer activities with more complex goal structures than parents with low SES (Missall et al, 2015). Consequently, while there is no difference in the range and frequency of numeracy activities offered in families with low and high SES, the complexity of the activities is different (Chiu, 2018).…”

“…Some inconsistencies have been found in previously conducted studies. Some studies have found a positive effect of early numeracy activities at home on later mathematics achievement (Casey et al, 2018;Chiu, 2018;Galindo & Sonnenschein, 2015;Huang et al, 2017;LeFevre et al, 2009;Niklas & Schneider, 2017;Zhu & Chiu, 2019), while others have found a mixed or nonsignificant effect (Blevins-Knabe et al, 2000;Missall et al, 2015;Skwarchuk, 2009;Skwarchuk et al, 2014;Zhang et al, 2020). These inconsistent findings might be because previously conducted studies have not properly considered the effect of a student's background and examined small non-representative samples (Zhu & Chiu, 2019).…”

International Comparative Assessment of Science and Mathematics Achievement in TIMSS

“…In this article, Chiu (2018) proposed models of (i) the multiple effects of early numeracy activities, conditioned by parental value, on mathematics achievement and affect (e.g., confidence and interest) and (ii) the multiple effects to be mediated by socioeconomic status and early numeracy activities conditioned by parental value and child gender. The proposed models were examined using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with data from Taiwanese parental reports and child grade-4 tests and reports (N = 4,291; 49% girls) of TIMSS 2015.…”