Understanding the Home Math Environment and Its Role in Predicting Parent Report of Children’s Math Skills

Abstract

There is a growing literature concerning the role of the home math environment in children’s math development. In this study, we examined the relation between these constructs by specifically addressing three goals. The first goal was to identify the measurement structure of the home math environment through a series of confirmatory factor analyses. The second goal was to examine the role of the home math environment in predicting parent report of children’s math skills. The third goal was to test a series of potential alternative explanations for the relation between the home math environment and parent report of children’s skills, specifically the direct and indirect role of household income, parent math anxiety, and parent math ability as measured by their approximate number system performance. A final sample of 339 parents of children aged 3 through 8 drawn from Mechanical Turk answered a questionnaire online. The best fitting model of the home math environment was a bifactor model with a general factor representing the general home math environment, and three specific factors representing the direct numeracy environment, the indirect numeracy environment, and the spatial environment. When examining the association of the home math environment factors to parent report of child skills, the general home math environment factor and the spatial environment were the only significant predictors. Parents who reported doing more general math activities in the home reported having children with higher math skills, whereas parents who reported doing more spatial activities reported having children with lower math skills.

The nature of math anxiety in adults: Prevalence and correlates

“…We were surprised by the null correlation between income and math anxiety, and have no explanation for the finding. We had hypothesized a negative correlation, as socioeconomic status is consistently an important positive predictor of math performance in students (e.g., Sirin, 2005), and our previous work has found a significant correlation between math anxiety and household income in parents (Hart et al, 2016).…”

Frequency of Home Numeracy Activities Is Differentially Related to Basic Number Processing and Calculation Skills in Kindergartners

“…Not only the relation between home numeracy and children’s mathematical skills might change over time, but also the frequency of the home numeracy activities. For instance, parents reported some activities, such as counting or reading number story books less frequently as their children became older ( LeFevre et al, 2009 ; Hart et al, 2016 ). Second, the current sample consisted mainly of families with a middle-to-high SES.…”

Longitudinal Effects of the Home Learning Environment and Parental Difficulties on Reading and Math Development Across Grades 1–9

“…It has to be stressed, however, that research focusing on the role of HNE remains rather scant and much less conclusive in comparison to studies on HLE. Whereas some studies suggest that the HNE is a significant contributor to the development of mathematical skills ( Niklas and Schneider, 2014 ; Skwarchuk et al, 2014 ; Hart et al, 2016 ; Napoli and Purpura, 2018 ), other research finds a non-significant or even negative association between children’s mathematical development and HNE ( Blevins-Knabe et al, 2000 ; Silinskas et al, 2010 ; Missall et al, 2015 ; Zippert and Rittle-Johnson, 2020 ).…”

“…The effects of FR on children’s skill development may act through the genetic pathway; both twin and molecular genetic studies have produced compelling evidence for the strong heritability of both reading and mathematical skills ( Docherty et al, 2010 ; Kovas et al, 2013 ; de Zeeuw et al, 2015 ; Little et al, 2017 ). However, parental reading/mathematical difficulties have also been shown to be transmitted through the environmental pathway ( Petrill et al, 2005 ; de Zeeuw et al, 2015 ; Hart et al, 2016 ; van Bergen et al, 2017 ). Therefore, we examine if parental reading and mathematical difficulties impact the home environment and if they affect children’s skills not only directly but also indirectly via the home environment.…”