Math Anxiety, Activities, and Skills: Evidence From US Latine Families

ABSTRACT Findings from previous work show that caregivers' math anxiety moderates the positive association between caregiver–child math activities and child math outcomes. Most of this research, however, has focused on elementary school children, primarily White populations, and used mainstream measures. The present study examined the associations between caregiver–child math activities, caregiver math anxiety, and caregiver rating of child numeracy skills with 828 US Latine families ( M age–child = 3.72, SD = 1.25) and used a culturally grounded measure. We found that caregiver–child math activities and caregiver math anxiety were each related to children’s numeracy skills. Additionally, caregiver math anxiety negatively moderated the association between caregiver–child math activities and children’s numeracy skills, such that the association only held at lower‐than‐average levels of math anxiety. The results of the study enhance our understanding of the factors that shape how US Latine families support young children’s early math learning.