Parent-Child Scientific Storybook Reading Shapes Children's Mindset Beliefs and Persistence

• In Event: Child and Parent Discourse for Cognitive and Social-Emotional Learning

Abstract

Parent-child scientific conversations may send messages about the importance of hard work in STEM. We explored how parent-child discourse during a scientific storybook about success impacts preschoolers’ mindset beliefs and persistence. Parent-child dyads read a storybook about Marie Curie or Katherine Johnson in one of three conditions: Achievement (highlights success), Effort (emphasizes challenges) or Baseline. Children were then asked mindset belief and effort questions and presented with an impossible task. Analyses indicate that children in the Effort Condition were more likely to endorse a growth mindset, attribute a scientist’s award to hard work and persist longer on the impossible task than children in Achievement Condition. This work highlights how parent-child scientific discourse impacts children’s mindset and effort beliefs in science.

Authors

• Amanda S Haber, Fairfield University
  Presenting Author

• Sona Kumar, Purdue University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kathryn A. Leech, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mia Holder, Boston University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kathleen H. Corriveau, Boston University
  Non-Presenting Author