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Mathematics takes place in a major part of human life and mathematical concepts are used in every part of daily life, starting from the age of infancy. The present study concentrates on the age of 11 months to two years, during nursery education, when formal, informal and non-formal activities enable infants to have experiences related to mathematical concepts. Nursery teachers are expected to include play-based activities at every stage of the teaching process, while parents are recognized as young children’s first educators. We examined nursery teachers’ and parents’ beliefs and practices about the development of the infants’ mathematical skills through the use of play-based activities and their respective roles. The present study was conducted in Cyprus, where obligatory preschool education is only one year before primary education. Questionnaires, interviews and shared diaries with home activities were used for quantitative and qualitative data. Results indicated that both groups of participants expressed positive conceptions on the value of daily life play-based activities which could support mathematical learning. However, it seemed that in the case of parents there was a lack of relevant knowledge about the use of attractive and creative activities which could relate to plenty of mathematical concepts. Parents recognize the vital role of teachers and they asked for further guidance and support. We discuss how we can ensure the quality of early mathematics informal teaching and nonformal learning experiences can be offered for all infants. We discuss the role of the Curriculum in Mathematics at nursery school under a play-based context and the guided parental involvement.

Background Acute cough is the most common symptom among children in primary care, but the impact of cough episodes was never investigated in Italian families. Methods A cross-sectional telephone survey was conducted on a representative sample of Italian families, randomly selected from general population; a specific and validated questionnaire was used. Results The sample (604 calls) was uniform by geographical distribution, and by children age and gender. Mean cough episode was 3.1/year, they were short lasting (only 4.7% > 2 weeks). Independent predictors of children cough episodes were parents’ active smoking habit and work ( p  < 0.05). The mean nursery/school absenteeism was mostly < 7 days, but of a 7–15-day duration in near 30% of cases. The pediatrician was contacted immediately only by 25% of parents and a second consultation (mostly a lung physician) usually occurred after 2–3 weeks of cough. Meanwhile, home/pharmacist suggested remedies were adopted in 50–70% of cases. Usual prescriptions were mucolytics (85.8%), antitussive agents (55.6%), non-steroideal anti-inflammatory drugs (33.8%), antibiotics (regularly or episodically 80%), and corticosteroids (systemic steroids in less than 50%, but via aerosol in more than 80% of cases). Moreover, pediatricians claimed to use homeopathic drugs regularly or episodically in almost 50%. The respondents’ willingness to spend out-of-pocket for an “effective remedy” against cough was of € 20 (>€ 30 in 18.4% of cases). Conclusions Parents’ actions against cough episodes were variable, depending on their beliefs, smoking habit, and occupational status. The parents’ perceived efficacy of usual prescriptions is poor, and their willingness to pay out-of-pocket for an “effective remedy” against cough is high. The interest for alternative treatments is not negligible in these circumstances.

In the domain of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, the family still presents an untapped resource for promoting students’ motivation and achievement. Based on the premises of the Eccles’ model of parental socialization and the expectancy-value theory, this paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature on the socializing influence of parental beliefs in the STEM educational domain. More specifically, we discuss the role of parents’ values and self-efficacy in STEM, parents’ perception of children’s ability in STEM, and parents’ expectations for children’s STEM achievement. Reviewed studies show that all of these beliefs have a potential in explaining variations in students’ achievement motivation, performance, and career choices related to STEM. Parents’ child-specific beliefs and messages have shown to be the crucial socializing factors in this area. We further integrate and discuss the research findings on the gender differentiation in parents’ child-specific beliefs in STEM, possible explanations of this differentiation, and its importance for students’ gender-role socialization in STEM. The review also points out that the behavioral mechanisms through which parents may convey their STEM-related beliefs to their children are still unclear, presumably since the quality of parent–child interaction in STEM is often overlooked by researchers. Lastly, we present parent-oriented interventions aimed at fostering parents’ self-efficacy and utility value in STEM and at changing stereotypical images of STEM careers and STEM professionals. Based on this comprehensive review, methodological and conceptual implications for future research are discussed and improvements for parental intervention programs are proposed.

Background Research indicates that parents’ involvement in early literacy, particularly through book reading, matters for young children’s language and literacy development. OBJECTIVE: However, little is known about the nature and extent of family book reading across the U.S. nation or about which factors support parents’ involvement in book reading. In particular, parents’ beliefs about promoting literacy may be linked to their book-reading actions, which can foster their children’s learning.  Method We investigated several questions using the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten 2011 (ECLS-K) dataset: (1) How are demographic characteristics (ethnicity, SES, and child age) predictive of parents’ literacy beliefs and home reading practices during children’s kindergarten year?; (2) How do parents’ literacy beliefs contribute to parents’ home reading practices during children’s kindergarten year?; and (3) How do parents’ literacy beliefs and home reading practices relate to children’s literacy development during their kindergarten year? We focused on data from Fall 2010 through Spring 2011, spanning the kindergarten year, and utilized descriptive and multivariate regression techniques.  Results Regressions reveal that parents’ literacy beliefs are linked to their literacy practices, net of the effects of a variety of covariates. In turn, both beliefs and practices are uniquely linked to increases in children’s reading performance over the kindergarten year, demonstrating incremental validity for both sets of variables and reinforcing the importance of both beliefs and practices as part of the home learning environment.  Conclusions The findings of this study underscore the critical role of parents’ beliefs in contributing to their home reading practices, which, in turn, are positively related to kindergarteners’ literacy development, net of the effects of variety of important covariates.

The goals of the current study were to describe parents’ emotion socialization patterns and to assess relations between parents’ emotion-related beliefs and socialization behaviors during conversations with their children. Participants were 125 parents and their 9- and 10-year-old children from three ethnic groups in the southeastern United States. Parents reported beliefs about children’s emotions. Parents and children were videotaped playing a board game to evoke emotion-related conversations, which were then coded for parents’ labeling, teaching, and encouragement of emotion. Parents used less labeling and teaching for positive than negative emotions, and greater encouragement for positive than negative emotions. Parents with stronger beliefs about the value of positive emotions engaged in less labeling of positive emotions, less teaching of all emotions, and less encouragement of negative emotions. Parents with stronger beliefs about the value of negative emotions engaged in more encouragement of negative emotions. Parents with stronger beliefs that all emotions are dangerous engaged in less labeling of negative emotions. The results of this study have potential clinical implications in helping clients to understand the foundational structures of their behaviors and how both beliefs and behaviors are distinct, yet interrelated constructs.

Parental emotional expressivity toward their child is an integral component of creating a family emotional climate, which is the primary context in which children develop social-emotional skills. The current study sought to empirically test Darling and Steinberg's model that parent attitudes that make up parenting style effect parental emotional expressivity during parent-child interaction. Using longitudinal data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD), the authors examined the compounding effects of maternal authoritarian attitudes measured soon after birth on maternal emotional expressivity toward their infant across three time points (child at 6, 15, and 24 months old). Hierarchical linear modeling analyses (HLMs) demonstrated that a mother's ( = 1165, = 28.2 years) authoritarian attitudes were associated with both decreased positive expressivity and increased negative expressivity toward their child at 6 months of age. Mothers who held more authoritarian attitudes at baseline demonstrated an increased rate of growth in negative expressivity toward their child over time. Maternal race and income were also significantly associated with the linear rate of growth of negative expressivity over time but not in positive expressivity. This suggests that authoritarian attitudes measured when the child is 1 month old continue to impact parent behavior up to 23 months later. This pattern suggests a potential window for effective universal prevention efforts in promoting nurturing parent behavior and promoting positive parent-child relationships. A possible target of prevention intervention could be providing parents with components of a modularized emotion regulation curriculum. The content could help parents to regulate their negative expressivity toward the child and focus on the message they want to convey to the child related to the child's specific behavior.

The present study aims to explore the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the Parents’ Beliefs About Children’s Emotions Questionnaire (PBACE), a self-report questionnaire composed of seven scales: Cost of Positivity, Value of Anger, Manipulation, Control, Parental Knowledge (PN), Autonomy and Stability. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to assess the factorial structure of PBACE (seven independent models corresponding to the seven scales and a seven-factor correlated model were tested), in a sample of 411 parents (83.2% mothers) of children aged 6–13 years old. All the analyzed models, except for the PN scale, presented an adequate fit. Adequate Cronbach’s alpha values were found for all the scales, except for the PN and Stability scales. PBACE construct validity was attested by the significant correlations between the PBACE scales and child’s temperament, parental neuroticism, parental anxiety, parental overprotection and parental support of child’s coping behaviors. No gender differences were found in responses of PBACE scales. Therefore, the Portuguese version of the PBACE proved to be a psychometrically valid measure for assessing different parents’ beliefs about children’s emotions (positive and negative). However, the use of PN scale is not recommended given its low Cronbach alpha, poor fit to the data and weak or nonsignificant correlations with the remaining subscales.

The remote education during the COVID-19 pandemic was a novel educational situation for children and parents. The study investigated (1) changes in parental involvement in children’s homework (autonomy support, control, and interference) during school closure, and (2) parents’ motivational (self-efficacy, beliefs in child’s efficacy, online self-efficacy) and emotional variables (positive and negative emotions) as predictors of parental involvement in homework. A sample of 127 parents of elementary school children completed an online questionnaire. The results showed that control and interference in children’s homework increased significantly during COVID-19. Parents’ self-efficacy to help children succeed at school positively predicted parental autonomy support and control before and during the pandemic. However, during the pandemic, autonomy support was additionally predicted by parents’ positive emotions (marginally) and control by their beliefs of their child’s efficacy. Parents’ negative emotions predicted parental interference at both periods. The study enhances our understanding of parental involvement during COVID-19 and offers practical insights for supporting children’s homework during future crises. La educación a distancia durante la pandemia de COVID-19 representó un reto para progenitores y escolares. Este estudio analizó (1) los cambios en la implicación parental en las tareas escolares (apoyo a la autonomía, control e interferencia) durante la suspensión de clases presenciales, y (2) factores motivacionales (autoeficacia parental, creencias sobre la eficacia del hijo, autoeficacia en línea) y emocionales (emociones positivas y negativas) asociados. Participaron 127 progenitores de alumnado de Educación Primaria mediante un cuestionario online. Los resultados mostraron un aumento significativo del control y la interferencia durante la pandemia. La autoeficacia parental predijo el apoyo a la autonomía y el control antes y durante este periodo. Además, el apoyo a la autonomía mostró una relación débil con las emociones positivas, y el control se asoció con las creencias sobre la eficacia del escolar. Las emociones negativas predijeron la interferencia en ambos momentos. El estudio amplía el conocimiento sobre la implicación parental en contextos de crisis y ofrece orientaciones prácticas para futuras situaciones similares.

The study focuses on the beliefs of Arabic-speaking mothers in Israel relating to early literacy, and the relations between their beliefs and their children’s actual early literacy skills. Participants included 113 mothers and their 5–6-year-old preschool children. At the families’ homes, mothers reported about the richness of the home literacy environment (HLE), their general beliefs relating to the importance of the literacy environment and their specific estimations of their child’s letter knowledge, phonological awareness, word writing and reading. In preschools, we assessed children’s letter knowledge, phonological awareness, word writing and reading. Results showed that mothers were aware of their children’s early literacy skills yet they over-estimated them. In a series of hierarchical regression analyses, we found that family socio-economic status (SES) significantly explained all of the children’s early literacy skills. Beyond SES, richness of the HLE contributed to most of the assessed literacy skills. Mothers’ general beliefs regarding the importance of the HLE and their estimation of their child’s literacy skills explained children’s skills beyond SES and HLE. The study has educational implications relating to the promotion of children’s early literacy skills in Arabic within the family.

Understanding parental attitudes to their children’s vaccination is critical to developing and implementing interventions that address parents’ hesitancy and improve vaccine uptake. The Parent Attitudes about Childhood Vaccines (PACV) survey is a validated tool for identifying vaccine hesitancy in parents. We evaluated the rate of vaccine hesitancy and areas of concern regarding childhood vaccinations using an adapted version of the PACV survey, in a convenience sample of parents attending a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) outreach event in Ireland, in 2018. A score ≥ 50 identified vaccine hesitant parents. Of 105 parents who completed the survey, the prevalence of vaccine hesitancy was 6.7%, (7/105). Parents had concerns around vaccine side effects (36.2%, n = 38), vaccine safety (20%, n = 21) and the number of vaccines administered (13.3%, n = 14). Parents trusted the vaccine information they received (85.6%, n = 90) and 81.9% (n = 86) believed that the vaccine schedule was good for their child. The findings indicate the presence of vaccine hesitancy in parents in Ireland regarding paediatric vaccines with further research necessary to address parents’ vaccine concerns. Future research should explore further, by qualitative methods, parents’ vaccine concerns. There is also potential to identify vaccine hesitant parents with the PACV survey as a surveillance method in healthcare settings; for example, in community pharmacies, family doctor clinics and out-patient clinics.