Countries, Parental Occupation, and Girls' Interest in Science

• In Event: 63.027 - Understanding the Role of Culture and Context in Learning and Motivation Using Cross-National Data

Abstract

Objectives
Historically, gender differences in ability and precollege selection have been advanced as the critical mechanisms behind women’s underrepresentation in science fields; however, meta-analyses of math and science ability have shown that these gender differences are often trivial in size. This paper explores the role of factors influencing adolescent girls’ interest in science and in particular, the interplay of cultural factors and parental occupation.

Theoretical framework
Gender differences in STEM interest are highly responsive to environmental influences (Cheryan, Ziegler, Montoya, & Jiang, 2017). On one hand, in the familial environment, the effect of parental role models on the formation of interest has been well documented in various social-psychological theories (e.g., expectancy-value theory; Eccles, 2009) and these role models have been shown to be effective in enabling girls to envision themselves in counter-stereotypical roles in science. On the other hand, scholars have long acknowledged that sociocultural beliefs (e.g., culture-based gender-role attitudes and stereotypes) play an important role in shaping girls’ behaviors and attitudes (Nosek, 2009). However, little attention has been paid to the interaction of both micro (family) and macro (sociocultural milieu) factors in influencing girls’ interest in STEM careers.
To address this research gap, utilizing data from the 2015 Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA), we examined how the influence of mother’s and father’s occupations on girls’ science interest varied by several macro-level national measures.

Methods
PISA2015, a survey of 519,334 15-year-old students, gathered data on individual student performance, science-related motivation, and demographics from 72 countries and regions. Student-reported parental occupations and science interest were utilized. Individual level covariates (i.e., science test scores, year grades, parents’ educational level) also were included. We relied on the average implicit association test (IAT) scores from 2003-2015, HDI, and GGI, to assess implicit gender stereotypes in science, as well as socio-economic development and gender equality, at the national level.
We applied random-intercept multilevel regression, which handles the cross-level interaction effects between gender, parental occupation, and country-level measures.

Results
The results revealed a significant interaction between parental occupation and girls’ IAT scores. The simple slope in Fig 1A shows that for girls, the difference in science interest between those with mother and without mother or father in a STEM career, was smaller when IAT scores were greater. This indicates that the positive effect of having a mother in a STEM career on girls’ science interest gets weaker in societies with more negative female science stereotypes. Additionally, the cross-level interaction between mothers’ occupation and the HDI scores, positively predicted girls’ science interest. This suggests that the effect of having a mother in a STEM career on girls’ science interest is stronger in more socio-economically developed societies (Fig 1B).

Significance
To conclude, both implicit gender stereotypes and socio-economic development influence the effect of parental role models on girls’ interest in science. This suggests that efforts to increase female representation in STEM fields should pay more attention to understanding how sociocultural environment, at the familial and societal levels, directs girls towards, or alternatively away from, STEM fields.

Authors

• Jiesi Guo, Australian Catholic University

• Herbert W. Marsh, Australian Catholic University

• Philip D Parker, Australian Catholic University

• Theresa Dicke, Australian Catholic University