Abstract
IntroductionIn prior studies conducted in the United States, parents’ gender-differentiated encouragement of science predicted children’s later science motivation. Most of this research has focused on older children or teens and only looked at the impact of mothers. However, accumulating evidence suggests that gender-differentiated encouragement of science interest may begin in early childhood. Moreover, fathers may be more likely than mothers to treat sons and daughters differently in science-learning contexts.MethodsWe examined 50 United States families with both a mother and a father (82% White; 98% with at least some college education) and either a daughter or a son (48–83 months; M = 62, SD = 9). On separate visits, each parent reads two books with their child. One was about life science and the other was about physical science. We coded parents’ science-related talk during these interactions.Results and ConclusionIn contrast to our predictions, parents used higher proportions of science talk with daughters than sons, including higher average rates of overall science talk and specific types of science talk (e.g., science explanations, science-related personal connections, and science-learning talk). Moreover, most of the child gender effects occurred while reading the physical science books. Book topic and parent gender moderated some additional patterns. Book reading is discussed as a potential context for mitigating socialization experiences that traditionally disfavor girls’ interest in physical science.
Highlights
In prior studies conducted in the United States, parents’ genderdifferentiated encouragement of science predicted children’s later science motivation
To control for variations across parents in the time spent talking about the book, we calculated each type of science talk as a proportion of total utterances
The results suggested that science book reading with young children may be a context in some families in which parents may especially engage girls in science learning
Summary
In prior studies conducted in the United States, parents’ genderdifferentiated encouragement of science predicted children’s later science motivation. Researchers have highlighted the potential impact of parents’ gender-differentiated socialization on children’s developing interests and ability beliefs (Eccles and Wigfield, 2020). Previous research on parents’ gender-differentiated socialization of their children’s science learning and interest has focused on middle childhood and adolescence. Previous research studies looked primarily at mothers without considering parent gender as a potential moderator. We examined children’s book reading separately with their mothers and fathers. Scant research has separately examined physical science and life science when considering parents’ gender-differentiated treatment. We observed parents reading separate science books on life science and physical science with their children
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