Academic Journal
Verbal and nonverbal scaffolding in parent-child interactions: links to mathematics ability in middle childhood.
| Τίτλος: | Verbal and nonverbal scaffolding in parent-child interactions: links to mathematics ability in middle childhood. |
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| Συγγραφείς: | Ni Y; School of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China., Hu N; School of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China; Lab for Educational Big Data and Policymaking, Ministry of Education, China. Electronic address: huna54@shnu.edu.cn., Li T; School of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China., Shi X; School of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China; Shanghai JingAn Mental Health Center, Shanghai, China., Cai D; School of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China; Lab for Educational Big Data and Policymaking, Ministry of Education, China. Electronic address: caidan@shnu.edu.cn. |
| Πηγή: | Journal of experimental child psychology [J Exp Child Psychol] 2026 Aug; Vol. 268, pp. 106531. Date of Electronic Publication: 2026 Apr 25. |
| Τύπος έκδοσης: | Journal Article |
| Γλώσσα: | English |
| Στοιχεία περιοδικού: | Publisher: Academic Press Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 2985128R Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1096-0457 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00220965 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Exp Child Psychol Subsets: MEDLINE |
| Imprint Name(s): | Publication: New York, NY : Academic Press Original Publication: New York. |
| Ιατρικοί όροι (MeSH): | Verbal Behavior*/physiology , Problem Solving*/physiology , Nonverbal Communication*/psychology , Aptitude*/physiology , Parent-Child Relations* , Mathematics*, Humans ; Child ; Female ; Male |
| Περίληψη: | Parental scaffolding during parent-child interactions plays a critical role in children's academic ability. However, limited studies have examined the costs and benefits of specific parental scaffolding behaviors. This study examined how parental verbal and nonverbal scaffolding relates to elementary school children's mathematics ability across three domains: computation, fluency, and problem-solving. Participants included 78 children (6.47-11.17 years, Grades 1-5) and their father or mother. Twelve parental scaffolding behaviors (verbal/non-verbal) were coded during two parent-child dyadic tasks (map/block-building task). Verbal scaffolding mainly included open-ended questions, multiple choice questions, closed-ended questions, observational leading questions, explanatory questions, and procedural questions. Nonverbal scaffolding mainly included manual help, demonstration, pointing, asserts control, onlooking, and off-task. Results showed that, after controlling for child gender, parent gender and parental education, pointing was negatively associated with both computation and problem-solving. Moreover, children's age negatively moderated the relationships of both open-ended and procedural questions with math fluency: procedural questions were negatively associated with fluency for older children, while open-ended questions showed a negative relationship for older children but a positive one for younger children. This study contributes to our understanding of the functions of scaffolding in children, highlighting that directive scaffolding behaviors (e.g., pointing and procedural questioning) may hinder rather than support children's mathematical learning. (Copyright © 2026 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.) |
| Competing Interests: | Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. |
| Contributed Indexing: | Keywords: Mathematics ability; Nonverbal scaffolding; Parent–child interaction; School-age children; Verbal scaffolding |
| Entry Date(s): | Date Created: 20260426 Date Completed: 20260715 Latest Revision: 20260715 |
| Update Code: | 20260716 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106531 |
| PMID: | 42035744 |
| Βάση Δεδομένων: | MEDLINE |
| ISSN: | 1096-0457 |
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| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106531 |