Parents' beliefs about math and gender are associated with children's attitudes and outcomes in school

• Main Author: Chua, Natalie Peijun
• Other Authors: Setoh Pei Pei
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2021
• Subjects: Social sciences::Psychology
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/150495
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Even though women are catching up with men in the workforce, women are still underrepresented in STEM fields, which are often math-intensive, despite evidence to show that their performance on math subjects are on par with men. Studies have pointed towards the field-specific ability belief (FAB) hypothesis to explain this gender gap in adult and children. This study seeks to investigate the links between six- to sixteen-year-old children and their parents' beliefs about math and gender, and their implications on student outcomes. Parent and child participants completed measures on their beliefs about how imperative brilliance is for math and their gender stereotypes through a self-report survey and online session respectively. Children's math self-efficacy, interests, aspirations and grades were also collected. Findings showed that parents’ and children’s beliefs about math and their overall gender stereotypes were positively correlated with each other. Additionally, parents’ math beliefs were predictive of older children’s math aspirations but not self-efficacy or interest, while parents' gender stereotypes were predictive of their children's math achievement. The findings of this study provide deeper insight of early parent-child links that may contribute to the gender disparity in STEM participation. With greater understanding of such links, more research and early intervention can be implemented to curb the transmission of biases from an early age.