A Role-Model Intervention to Increase Young Girls’ Persistence in Science

• In Event: Girls in STEM: Exploring the Developmental Origins of the Gender Gap in Science

Abstract

Women's underrepresentation in science is rooted in early childhood (Bian et al., 2017; Miller et al., 2018). Past studies suggest that exposing women to competent female role models may help decrease gender gaps in science by boosting their confidence and sense of belonging (e.g., Dasgupta, 2011; Stout et al., 2011). The success of such a strategy, however, depends on women’s identification with the presented role model and their ability to imagine themselves following her path (Betz & Sekaquaptewa, 2012). Our study focused on 4- to 7-year-old girls and examined whether prompting them to assume a female scientist’s identity (beyond merely learning about the scientist) would increase their persistence and self-efficacy in science through a role-model intervention.

Participants were 120 four-to-seven-year-old children (50% girls; Mage = 6.05, SDage = 1.07; planned N = 240), tested via Zoom. Children were assigned to one of three conditions: Baseline, Exposure, and Roleplay. In the Baseline condition, children were asked to be scientists and play a science game, in which they had to guess whether various objects will sink or float when dropped in water (procedure adapted from Rhodes et al., 2019). In the Exposure condition, children heard a story about a successful and persistent gender-matched scientist (Marie Curie for girls, Isaac Newton for boys) before playing the science game. In the Roleplay condition, children were told the same story as in the Exposure condition about the gender-matched scientist, and asked to pretend to be that scientist. Children’s persistence was measured as the amount of trials completed in the science game. After the science game, children were asked questions about their self-efficacy in science.

Results showed that girls overall persisted less than boys in the science game [χ2(1) = 6.97, p = .008]. However, a marginally significant interaction between gender and condition [χ2(2) = 5.05, p = .080; Figure 1] indicated that girls tended to persist longer in the Roleplay condition than in the Baseline and Exposure conditions. In contrast, boys’ persistence did not seem to benefit from either the Roleplay or Exposure conditions. To further examine the effectiveness of our manipulation, we compared girls’ persistence across the three conditions against boys’ baseline persistence. We found that girls’ persistence in both the Baseline (b = .89, p = .007) and Exposure (b = .83, p = .016) conditions was significantly lower than boys’ baseline persistence, but their persistence in the Roleplay condition did not differ from boys’ baseline (b = .33, p = .291). With respect to children’s self-efficacy in science, the condition differences were not significant for boys. However, as compared to the Baseline condition, girls were more self-efficacious in the Roleplay condition, but not in the Exposure condition (Figure 2).

Our results suggest that encouraging young girls to assume female role models’ identity, rather than merely exposing them to the role models, may be an effective first step in boosting their persistence and self-efficacy in science. These findings shed light on ways to decrease the gender gap in science from its developmental roots.

Authors

• Reut Shachnai, Yale University
  Presenting Author

• Tamar Kushnir, Duke Univeristy
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lin Bian, University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author