Dra. Rodríguez-Rodríguez, María

A negative correlation between mathematics performance and mathematics anxiety (MA) has been identified in students of varying ages. However, little is known as to whether this correlation diminishes when environmental factors are incorporated as moderator variables. Specifically, the effect of home numeracy activities (HNA) and parental MA on students’ performance-MA relationship has received little attention. Furthermore, there have been no studies that consider HNA frequency as reported by the children themselves. A sample of 311 Chilean second graders and their parents participated in the present study. We examined whether HNA frequency moderates the performance-MA relationship and whether this moderation is in turn moderated by parent MA. Results showed that the frequency of HNA strengthened or diminished the negative correlation between performance and MA as a function of parent MA. In the case of parents with low MA, regardless of HNA frequency, child mathematics performance was negatively associated with child MA. However, in the case of math-anxious parents that interacted frequently with their children, there was no association between child MA and math achievement. More broadly, the present study suggests that mathematics-related family dynamics and parents’ emotions are key to understanding the relationship between performance and MA in early development.

The central purpose of the present study is to assess the early numeracy skills of Chilean kindergarten students, taking into consideration the socioeconomic status (SES) of the schools they attend. A sample of 19 urban schools and 498 students were used for the study. Research Findings: The data analysis showed statistical differences in the results of students from low SES schools compared with medium and high SES schools in four symbolic number tasks: counting fluency, oral number identification, oral number comparison, and non-oral number comparison. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed a direct contribution of school vulnerability index, non-symbolic number tasks, and symbolic number tasks in number comparison performance. These analyses also revealed that school vulnerability index made a loose predictive contribution when symbolic number tasks were introduced into the model. Practice or Policy: The achievement gap detected in the early stages of formal education will most likely increase with time. Early detection of mathematics learning difficulties, effective intervention, and training of teaching staff may be means of equalizing the performance of students from different socioeconomic backgrounds.