Parents' math anxiety and mathematics performance of pre-kindergarten children

Prior research demonstrates that individuals' math anxiety may be negatively related to their mathematics performance. However, lit-tle research has examined how caregivers' math anxiety is associ-ated with children's mathematics performance prior to kindergarten. The purpose of this study was to investigate the rela-tion between parents' math anxiety and the change in children's mathematics performance during the preschool year. Participants were 310 preschool-age children (155 female; 4.12-5.78 years of age, M = 5.20 years, SD = 0.29). Structural equation modeling results demonstrated that parents' math anxiety was significantly negatively related to change in children's mathematics perfor-mance during the pre-kindergarten year when controlling for fall mathematics performance and demographics. Moreover, multi -group path analyses revealed that this association did not differ for male versus female children. (c) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study examined the association between parents' math anxiety and the change in children's mathematics performance during the preschool year, finding a significant negative relationship. The association did not differ for male versus female children.