TY - JOUR
T1 - Early home numeracy activities and later mathematics achievement
T2 - early numeracy, interest, and self-efficacy as mediators
AU - Zhu, Jinxin
AU - Chiu, Ming Ming
N1 - Funding Information:
The work was fully supported by the grants from the Central Reserve Allocation Committee and the Faculty of Education and Human Development of The Education University of Hong Kong (Project No. 03A28) on the project titled “Big data for school improvement: Identifying and analyzing multiple sources to support schools as learning communities.”
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Springer Nature B.V.
PY - 2019/10/1
Y1 - 2019/10/1
N2 - Parents are their children’s most influential educators, and their joint
activities can influence these children’s early learning. Past studies
with small, non-representative samples do not show a consistent link
between early numeracy activities at home and children’s mathematics
achievement. Specifically, whether or how early numeracy activity at home
(ENAH) enhances mathematics learning in upper primary school remains an
open question. This study tests this link, its precursors (home
resources for learning, gender), and its possible mechanisms (including
early numeracy skills, mathematics interest, and mathematics
self-efficacy) on a representative sample of 3,600 Hong Kong
fourth-grade children, with a multilevel path analysis. The results
showed that ENAH was linked to both early numeracy and fourth-grade
mathematics achievement, and did not support the substitution hypothesis
(that other factors such as school lessons substitute for ENAH). The
results also support two ENAH mechanisms. Children’s early numeracy and
mathematics self-efficacy both partially mediated the link between ENAH
and children’s later mathematics achievement. After including these
explanatory variables in the model, ENAH still retained a significant
direct link to fourth-grade mathematics achievement, suggesting that
ENAH also operates through one or more other mechanisms. Lastly, boys
and children in families with more home resources for learning were more
likely than other children to participate in ENAH.
AB - Parents are their children’s most influential educators, and their joint
activities can influence these children’s early learning. Past studies
with small, non-representative samples do not show a consistent link
between early numeracy activities at home and children’s mathematics
achievement. Specifically, whether or how early numeracy activity at home
(ENAH) enhances mathematics learning in upper primary school remains an
open question. This study tests this link, its precursors (home
resources for learning, gender), and its possible mechanisms (including
early numeracy skills, mathematics interest, and mathematics
self-efficacy) on a representative sample of 3,600 Hong Kong
fourth-grade children, with a multilevel path analysis. The results
showed that ENAH was linked to both early numeracy and fourth-grade
mathematics achievement, and did not support the substitution hypothesis
(that other factors such as school lessons substitute for ENAH). The
results also support two ENAH mechanisms. Children’s early numeracy and
mathematics self-efficacy both partially mediated the link between ENAH
and children’s later mathematics achievement. After including these
explanatory variables in the model, ENAH still retained a significant
direct link to fourth-grade mathematics achievement, suggesting that
ENAH also operates through one or more other mechanisms. Lastly, boys
and children in families with more home resources for learning were more
likely than other children to participate in ENAH.
KW - Early numeracy activities
KW - Home resources for learning
KW - Mathematics achievement
KW - Mathematics self-efficacy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85071595835&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10649-019-09906-6
DO - 10.1007/s10649-019-09906-6
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85071595835
SN - 0013-1954
VL - 102
SP - 173
EP - 191
JO - Educational Studies in Mathematics
JF - Educational Studies in Mathematics
IS - 2
ER -