PARENT-CHILD MATHEMATICS AFFECT AS PREDICTORS OF CHILDREN'S MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT

Authors

Abstract

The current study investigated the relationship between children’s and parents’ self-reported maths affect and children’s maths achievement. Participants comprised 186 child-parent dyads in Turkey. Findings showed that maths affect in children and their parents was unrelated. However, maths affect was a significant predictor of children’s maths achievement. Importantly, this varied by grade. In grade three, child maths affect significantly predicted maths achievement, whereas parent maths affect was unrelated to achievement. Conversely, in grade four, the opposite pattern emerged; parent maths affect significantly predicted children’s maths achievement, whereas child maths affect was unrelated to achievement. Furthermore, children’s maths achievement significantly varied according to parents’ level of education, whereby children whose parents were educated to undergraduate level considerably outperformed those whose parents were educated only to primary level. Parents with a lower educational status also reported significantly more difficulty in supporting their child’s maths learning. These findings point towards the importance of parent maths affect, their level of education, and perceived difficulty in supporting children, as predictors of children’s maths achievement. This is only the case in grade four, as maths becomes more challenging and there is a greater emphasis on competitive assessment. As such, the home numeracy environment and family maths tension should be addressed in preparation for children moving into grade four.

Keywords: Maths affect, mathematics achievement, parent, and primary school

REFERENCES

Alkan, V. (2018). A systematic review research: ‘Mathematics anxiety’ in Turkey. International Journal of Assessment Tools in Education, 5, 567-592.

Arslan, Ç., Güler, H.K., & Gürbüz, M. Ç. (2017). Ortaokul öğrencilerinin matematik kaygı düzeyleri ile öğrenme stratejileri arasındaki ilişki [Investigation of the relation between middle school students’ mathematics anxiety and learning strategies]. Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Journal of Education Faculty, (42), 123-142.

Ashcraft, M. H., & Faust, M. W. (1994). Mathematics anxiety and mental arithmetic performance: An exploratory investigation. Cognition and Emotion, 8, 97-125.

Baumrind, D. (1968). Authoritarian vs. authoritative parental control. Adolescence, 3, 255-262.

Cai, J., Moyer, J. C., & Wang, N. (1999). Parental roles in students' learning of mathematics: An exploratory study. Research in Middle Level Education Quarterly, 22, 1-18.

Can, A. (2014). SPSS ile bilimsel araştırma sürecinde nicel veri analizi [Quantitative data analysis in the scientific research process with SPSS] (3rd ed.). Ankara: Pegem Akademi.

Casad, B. J., Hale, P., & Wachs, F.L. (2015). Parent-child math anxiety and math-gender stereotypes predict adolescents’ math education outcomes. Front. Psychol., 6, 1597.

Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd Edn.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Daches Cohen, L., & Rubinsten, O. (2017). Mothers, intrinsic math motivation, arithmetic skills, and math anxiety in elementary school. Front. Psychol., 8, 1939. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01939

Del Río, M. F., Susperreguy, M. I., Strasser, K., & Salinas, V. (2017). Ditinct influences of mothers and fathers on kindergartners’ numeracy performance: The role of math anxiety, home numeracy practices, and numeracy expectations. Early Education and Development, 28, 939-955,

Devine, A., Fawcett, K., Szucs, D., & Dowker, A. (2012). Gender differences in mathematics and the relation to mathematics performance while controlling for test anxiety. Behavioral and Brain Functions, 8, 33.

Else-Quest, N. M., Hyde, J. S., & Hejmadi, A. (2008). Mother and child emotions during mathematics homework. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 10, 5-35.

Fidan, E. (2013). İlkokul öğrencileri için matematik dersi sayılar öğrenme alanında başarı testi geliştirilmesi [Developing a mathematics achievement test in the field of numbers for primary school students].  Unpublished Master Thesis, Ankara University Institute of Educational Sciences, Ankara.

Furnham, A., & Cheng, H. (2000). Perceived parental behavior, self-esteem and happiness. Soc. Psychiatry Psychiatr. Epidemiol. 35, 463–470.

Gunderson, E. A., Ramirez, G., Levine, S. C., & Beilock, S. L. (2012). The role of parents and teachers in the development of gender-related math attitudes. Sex Roles, 66, 153-166.

Harari, R. R., Vukovic, R. K., & Bailey, S. P. (2013). Mathematics anxiety in young children: An exploratory study. The Journal of Experimental Education, 81, 538-555.

Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J. T., & Rapson, R. L. (1993). Emotional contagion. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2, 96–99.

Hembree, R. (1990). The nature, effects, and relief of mathematics anxiety. Journal of Research for Mathematics Education, 21, 33-46.

Ho, H-Z., Senturk, D., Lam, A. G., Zimmer, J. M., Hong, S., & Okamoto, Y. (2000). The affective and cognitive dimensions of math anxiety: A cross-national study. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 31, 362-379.

Kellaghan, T., K. Sloane, Alvarez, B., & Bloom, B. (1993). The home environment and school learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Kesici, A. (2018). Matematik kaygisi ebeveynlerden cocuklara aktarilan kulturel bir miras mi? [Is math anxiety a cultural heritage transferred from parents to children?]. Dicle University Social Sciences Institute Journal, 10(20), 304-313.

Ma, X. (1999). A meta-analysis of the relationship between anxiety toward mathematics and achievement in mathematics. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 30, 520-540.

Macmull, M. S., & Ashkenazi, S. (2019). Math anxiety: The relationship between parenting style and math self-efficacy. Front. Psychol., 10, 1721.

Maloney, E. A., Ramirez, G., Gunderson, E. A., Levine, S. C., & Beilock, S. L. (2015). Intergenerational effects of parents’ math anxiety on children’s math achievement and anxiety. Psychological Science, 26(9), 1-9.

Mutlu, Y., & Söylemez, İ. (2017). İlkokul 3. ve 4. sınıf çocukları için matematik kaygı ölçeği; Güvenirlik ve geçerlik çalışması [Mathematic anxiety scale for children of primary 3. and 4. grade: Validity and reliability study]. Ekev Akademi Dergisi, 22(73), 429-440.

Mutlu, Y., Sarı, M.H., & Çam, Z. (2018). Ebeveyn matematik kaygısı ölçeği geliştirme çalışması [Development study of parental math anxiety scale]. Journal of Social Sciences of Mus Alparslan University, 6(STEMES’18), 139-145. Doi: 10.18506/anemon.463756

Namkung, J. M., Peng, P., & Lin, X. (2019). The relation between mathematics anxiety and mathematics performance among school-aged students: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 89, 459–496.

OECD (2019), PISA 2018 Results (Volume I): What students know and can do? PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/5f07c754-en.

Ozdemir, C. (2016). Equity in the Turkish education system: A multilevel analysis of social background influences on the mathematics performance of 15-year-old students. European Educational Research Journal, 15, 193-217.

Parsons, J. E., Adler, T. F., & Kaczala, C. M. (1982). Socialization of achievement attitudes and beliefs: Parental influences. Child Development, 53, 310-321.

Recber, S., Isiksal, M., & Koç, Y. (2018). Investigating self-efficacy, anxiety, attitudes and mathematics achievement regarding gender and school type. Anales de Psicología, 34, 41-51.

Rubinsten, O., Marciano, H., Eidlin Levy, H., & Daches Cohen, L. (2018). A framework for studying the heterogeneity of risk factors in math anxiety. Front. Behav. Neurosci., 12, 291.

Sad, S.N., Kis, A., Demir, M., & Özer, N. (2016). Meta-analysis of the relationship between mathematics anxiety and mathematics achievement. Pegem Journal of Education & Instruction, 6(3), 371.

Sarı, M. H., & Ekici, G. (2018). İlkokul 4. sınıf öğrencilerinin matematik başarıları ile aritmetik performanslarını etkileyen duyuşsal değişken-lerin belirlenmesi [Determination of affective variables affecting mathematical achievement and arithmetic performance of primary school 4th grade students]. OPUS-International Journal of Society Researches, 8(15), 1562-1594. DOI: 10.26466/opus.451025

Sarı, M. H., Arıkan S., & Yıldızlı, H. (2017). 8. sınıf matematik akademik başarısını yordayan faktörler-TIMSS 2015 [Factors predicting mathematics achievement of 8th graders in TIMSS 2015]. Journal of Measurement and Evaluation in Education and Psychology, 8(3), 246-265. Doi: 10.21031/epod.303689

Savaş, E., Taş, S., & Duru, A. (2010). Matematikte öğrenci başarısını etkileyen faktörler [Factors affecting students’ achievement in mathematics]. Inonu University Journal of the Faculty of Education, 11, 113-132.

Silinskas, G., & Kikas E. (2017) Parental involvement in math homework: Links to children’s performance and motivation, Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 63(1), 17-37, Doi: 10.1080/00313831.2017.1324901

Soni, A., & Kumari, S. (2017). The role of parental math anxiety and math attitude in their children’s math achievement. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 15(2), 331–347. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-015-9687-5.

Srivastava, R. Imam, A., & Singh, G. P. (2016). Mathematics anxiety among secondary school students in relation to gender and parental education. International Journal of Applied Research, 2, 787-790.

Szczygieł, M. (2020). When does math anxiety in parents and teachers predict math anxiety and math achievement in elementary school children? The role of gender and grade year. Social Psychology of Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-020-09570-2.

Taşdemir, C. (2015). Ortaokul öğrencilerinin matematik kaygı düzeylerinin incelenmesi [An investigate of the mathematics anxiety levels of secondary students]. Batman University Journal of Life Sciences, 5, 1-12.

Tobias, S., & Weissbrod, C. (1980). Anxiety and mathematics – an update. Harvard Educational Review, 50, 63-70.

Vukovic, R. K., Roberts, S. O., & Green Wright, L. (2013). From parental involvement to children’s mathematical performance: The role of mathematics anxiety. Early Educ. Dev., 24, 446–467.

Downloads

Published

2020-06-30

Issue

Section

Research Article