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The present study investigated parental antecedents of children’s learning interests in numeracy and literacy. Parents of 110 five- to six-year-old Chinese kindergarten children were recruited. One parent of each child completed the questionnaire on demographics, parental attitudes, home environment, home activity, parental involvement in school, and children’s learning interests in numeracy and literacy. The results indicated that parents’ attitudes could exert direct impacts on their children’s learning interests in numeracy and literacy when demographic variables and parental practices were controlled for. Parents’ attitudes toward their own learning were also indirectly correlated with their children’s learning interests via their attitudes toward their children’s learning. Moreover, parental practices explained the relationship between parental attitudes and children’s learning interests, albeit slightly differently across literacy and numeracy. Home activity and parental involvement in school significantly mediated the relationship between parental attitudes and children’s learning interests in numeracy, while in literacy, only home learning activity was a significant mediator. These findings have important implications for guiding parents in cultivating the kindergarten children’s learning interests in numeracy and literacy.
