The relation between children's constructive play activities, spatial ability, and mathematical word problem-solving performance: a mediation analysis in sixth-grade students.

Meike Oostermeijer,Anton J H Boonen,Jelle Jolles

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00782

Abstract

The scientific literature shows that constructive play activities are positively related to children’s spatial ability. Likewise, a close positive relation is found between spatial ability and mathematical word problem-solving performances. The relation between children’s constructive play and their performance on mathematical word problems is, however, not reported yet. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether spatial ability acted as a mediator in the relation between constructive play and mathematical word problem-solving performance in 128 sixth-grade elementary school children. This mediating role of spatial ability was tested by utilizing the current mediation approaches suggested by Preacher and Hayes (2008). Results showed that 38.16% of the variance in mathematical word problem-solving performance is explained by children’s constructive play activities and spatial ability. More specifically, spatial ability acted as a partial mediator, explaining 31.58% of the relation between constructive play and mathematical word problem-solving performance.

Highlights

In its home and school environment, almost every child is involved in playing with Legos, blocks, and jigsaw puzzles
The aim of the present study is to examine the link between children’s constructive play activities and two interrelated factors, namely spatial ability and mathematical word problem-solving performance
A positive relation between constructive play and spatial ability is reported by several authors (e.g., Bjorklund and Douglas-Brown, 2008; Levine et al, 2012) as well as a positive relation between spatial ability and mathematical word problem-solving performance (Blatto-Vallee et al, 2007; Beentjes, 2008; Casey et al, 2008), a relation between constructive play and mathematical word problem-solving performance is barely investigated

Summary

Introduction

In its home and school environment, almost every child is involved in playing with Legos, blocks, and jigsaw puzzles. The term constructive play, which has a central role in this study, is often used to categorize these play activities. Constructive play generally involves the manipulation, construction, and motion of objects in space (i.e., rotating, Mitchell, 1973; Pomerleau et al, 1990; Caldera et al, 1999). The aim of the present study is to examine the link between children’s constructive play activities and two interrelated factors, namely spatial ability and mathematical word problem-solving performance. A possible reason for this absence is that spatial ability acts as a mediator in the relation between children’s constructive play activities and their performances on mathematical word problems. The present study is primarily focused on testing this mediating role of spatial ability

Objectives

Methods

Results