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Abstract
Parents’ praise, autonomy-support, value communication, and positive affect are beneficial to children’s math adjustment, whereas criticism, control, and negative affect undermine children’s success in math. Synthesizing parenting behaviors that have been examined separately in prior research, the present observational study sought to reveal combinations of parental practices during dyadic math interactions using a person-centered approach. In addition, accounting for psychological and socioeconomic factors that can shape parental practices, the present study also investigated how parents’ child- and math-specific beliefs and family SES are associated with different combinations of parenting behaviors. Latent profile analysis yielded three distinct profiles that described 359 parents of children 7 to 8 years old: Moderately-motivating parents (75.49%), value-promoting parents (9.19%), and negative/controlling parents (15.32%). Parental beliefs were largely unrelated to combinations/profiles of parenting behaviors with the exception of parents’ growth mindset, which had a negative association with the behavioral profile characterized by parents’ frequent use of constructive behaviors. For family SES variables, parents’ educational attainment was a robust predictor of profiles of parenting behaviors, whereas household income did not predict parenting behaviors. Characteristics of the resulting profiles identified in the present study highlighted the practical importance of studying multiple parenting behaviors in tandem in the study of parents’ academic socialization. Findings on parental beliefs challenged the theoretical assumption that parents’ beliefs about their children and mathematics can naturally translate into their instructional behaviors. The robust relation between parental education and profiles of parenting behaviors contributed to the literature of SES disparities in parental practices, emphasizing that investigating the SES and cultural specificity of parenting behaviors is a necessary next step in the research of parents’ educational involvement.