Poster #191 - How do European-American and Latinx Parents Talk Differently to Boys and Girls about Science?

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Sex, Gender

Integrative Statement

Women’s participation in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce varies by occupation with significantly lower participation in the physical sciences (National Science Foundation, 2017). To gain an understanding of where STEM workforce gender disparities may originate, we examined early parent-child conversations about science in informal settings with European-American (EA) and Latinx families. Prior work demonstrates that EA parents explain more to boys than to girls as they interact with science tasks; and that parents’ support of science activities often depends on their child’s gender (Tenenbaum & Leaper 2003; Jacobs & Bleeker, 2004). A growing body of work has investigated the science talk Latinx parents use with their children (Solis & Callanan, 2016; Tenenbaum & Callanan, 2008), yet little work has specifically examined whether and how Latinx parents use science talk differently with boys and girls.
In this project, we explored gender differences in the talk EA and Latinx parents used with their children while reading two types of science books together. We videotaped 64 parent-child dyads as they read the children’s books: The Sun is my Favorite Star (explicit science content) and Wave (implicit science content). Children ranged in age from 3-5 years (M = 4 years, 54.5 months), with equal numbers of boys and girls. We coded book-reading conversations for the science talk parents used.
When examining parent talk during book reading a 2 (Child Gender: Boys and Girls) x 2 (Ethnicity: EA and Latinx) x 2 (Science Talk: Science Talk From the Explicit Science Book, Science Talk From the Implicit Science Book) mixed-design analysis of variance revealed a three-way interaction between parents’ proportional use of science talk, child gender, and ethnic background, F (7, 62) = 6.05, p < .05, Eta-Squred= .092.
Pairwise comparisons by child gender revealed that EA parents talked more about science with boys (M = .189, SD = .104) than girls (M = .114, SD = .095) when reading the explicit science content book, p = .014, d = .75. There was not a significant difference in the ways EA parents talked about science with their boys and girls when reading the implicit science content book.
Interestingly, there was not a significant difference in the ways Latinx parents talked about science with boys (M = .066, SD = .054) and girls (M = .108, SD = .1005) when reading the explicit science content book or the implicit science content book, p = .245, d = .52.
Our findings provide evidence of early ethnic differences in the ways EA parents and Latinx parents talk about science with their preschool-age boys and girls. Our poster will further discuss the role parents may play in socializing their children toward science. Additionally, we will address the intersection of children’s identities, and how children from diverse backgrounds may experience learning in informal settings. Lastly, we will consider the nature of science activities and how an explicit science activity may lead parents of some backgrounds to use science talk differently with boys and girls .

Authors

• Tess Haifley, University of California, Santa Cruz
  Presenting Author

• Jennifer Jipson, California Polytechnic State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Maureen Callanan, University of California, Santa Cruz
  Non-Presenting Author