Parental Media Mediation, Language Ability, and Early Math Ability in Chinese Preschoolers: A Cross-Sectional Study

Parental media mediation is associated with young children’s cognitive development, but its role in relation to preschoolers’ math ability remains unclear. This study examined whether and how parental media mediation is associated with preschoolers’ math ability, focusing on the cross-sectional indirect association through language ability and whether selected associations differed across study sites and by gender. Participants were 836 preschoolers (M age = 4.36, SD = 0.87) and their parents from seven kindergartens across three purposively selected study sites in Guangdong, China. Parental media mediation was assessed via parent-report questionnaires; children’s language and math abilities were assessed via one-on-one tests. Results showed that parental media mediation was significantly associated with preschoolers’ math abilities, with a small indirect association from parental media mediation to math ability through overall language ability. The three study sites did not moderate the path from parental media mediation to language ability. Gender did not moderate the mediated associations: although the path from receptive vocabulary to math was stronger for boys than girls, the difference in indirect effects was not significant. These findings provide preliminary evidence that language ability may serve as a link between parental media mediation and preschoolers’ math ability.