Child Development Perspectives · 2026
Motivational resources matter
Wu, J., & Pomerantz, E. M. (2026). Parents’ involvement in children's math learning: Motivational resources matter. Child Development Perspectives, aadag004.
Program overview
Parenting support is cognitive, motivational, and reciprocal.
Parents support learning through the mathematical ideas and strategies they introduce, as well as through the autonomy, control, and emotional tone they bring to an interaction.
Children are active participants. Their questions, strategies, affect, and engagement can change what parents do next. This program studies those reciprocal processes as they unfold within shared STEM tasks.
Conceptual contributions
Integrating what parents teach with how they support learning
Advances in Child Development and Behavior · 2025
A dual-pathway model
Pomerantz, E. M., Wu, J., & MacDonald, C. (2025). The role of parenting in children's math learning: A dual-pathway model. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 69, 193–221.
A transactional, dual-pathway view
Cognitive pathway
Mathematical and spatial talk can focus attention, represent relationships, and provide strategies for solving a problem.
Motivational pathway
Autonomy support, control, and affect shape whether children approach the task with interest, confidence, and persistence.
Transactional dynamics
Parent and child behavior influence one another over time, so understanding support requires studying the sequence of interaction.
Studies in the program
Study 1
Early Mathematics Learning Project
Wu, J., Oh, D., Hyde, D. C., & Pomerantz, E. M. (2024). Cognitive and motivational numeracy parenting practices: Implications for children’s numeracy engagement during early elementary school. Developmental Psychology, 60(4), 680–692. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001706
Method
529 parent-child dyads
First and second grade
Structured coin-matching task
One-minute behavioral intervals
Multilevel modeling
Families completed a structured coin-matching mathematics task. Parent mathematical talk, motivational practices, and children’s engagement were coded across the interaction.
Finding: Parents’ cognitive and motivational numeracy practices made distinct, independent contributions to children’s engagement during a challenging mathematics task. Parents’ prompts—especially prompts involving more advanced numerical concepts—predicted children’s greater and more advanced strategy use in the following minute, whereas statements did not show comparable benefits. Greater autonomy support and lower control also predicted children’s subsequent engagement, suggesting that children benefit when parents combine cognitively challenging prompts with autonomy-supportive interaction.
SRCD 2023 conference talk
Wu, J., Oh, D., Hyde, D. C., & Pomerantz, E. M. (April 2023). Numeracy Parenting Practices and Children’s Numeracy Engagement: Which Practices Matter? Symposium talk presented at the Society for Research in Child Development 2023 Biennial Meeting.
Study 2
Technology-Mediated Online Math Learning
Method
Second-grade children and parents
Online mathematics task
Repeated one-minute observation
Experimental yoked design
Micro-longitudinal analysis
This project examines how parents support children during time-limited online mathematics work. Parents’ and children’s mathematics talk was coded at the sentence level, while parents’ autonomy support versus control and both partners’ positive versus negative affect were coded each minute to capture how these practices unfold in real time.
The research platform presented five rounds of developmentally appropriate, multi-digit addition and subtraction in three equivalent formats: formal numerical problems, contextualized word problems, and interactive puzzle-based activities. Dyads in the Choice condition selected the format for each round, while yoked No-Choice dyads completed the identical sequence without making selections.
AERA 2026 poster
Wu, J., Zhang, L., & Jia, Y. (April 2026). Minute by Minute: Unfolding Patterns of Parental Behaviors in Math Homework Help. Poster presentation at the American Educational Research Association 2026 Annual Meeting.
This poster was developed with undergraduate students I mentored and offers a public preview of the project.
Research status: Analyses are ongoing, and results will be updated soon.
Study 3
Emotion in Collaborative Probability Learning
Method
73 parent-child dyads
Second- and third-grade children
15-minute probability task
30-second behavioral intervals
Multilevel modeling
This study examines how parents and children coordinate emotion, support, and engagement while learning an unfamiliar mathematics concept through a collaborative probability task.
AERA 2025 conference output
Song, Y., Wu, J., & Barger, M. M. (April 2025). Parents’ Positive Emotional Affect is Infectious in Dyadic Math Interaction. Symposium talk presented at a paper session at the American Educational Research Association 2025 Annual Meeting.
Research status: Analyses are ongoing, and results will be updated soon.
Study 4
Etch-a-Sketch Spatial Problem-Solving Interactions
Method
Singapore longitudinal cohort
Children at 54 months
10-minute structured task
Dyadic spatial problem solving
Behavioral coding
This project studies how parents and young children coordinate spatial and mathematical thinking during a shared Etch-a-Sketch task in Singapore. Each partner operates one knob—one controlling horizontal movement and the other vertical movement—and the dyad works together to reproduce a detailed house template within ten minutes. The task requires continuous coordination, communication, and joint problem solving.
Research status: Coding is ongoing, and results will be updated soon.
Behavioral coding systems
Behavioral Coding Systems I Developed to Capture Interaction Dynamics
Parent and child mathematics talk
Sentence-level codes identify mathematical content, prompts, explanations, and strategy-related talk.
Parent and child affect
Minute-level codes capture positive and negative emotional expressions from both members of the dyad.
Autonomy support and control
Codes distinguish support for children’s initiative and perspective from pressure, direction, and taking over.
Research design
Turning interaction into analyzable developmental data
Parent-child interaction task
Structured tasks create a common problem while preserving natural variation in family interaction.
Coded intervals
Behavioral codebooks capture mathematics talk, autonomy support, control, affect, and child engagement.
Dynamic model
Repeated intervals reveal trajectories and reciprocal changes beyond global ratings.
Across the program: Experimental and multilevel designs distinguish task effects, family differences, and within-task dynamics.