New Perspectives on the STEM Gender Disparities: Children’s Interlocking Beliefs about Fields and Social Groups

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Children’s aspirations to pursue a field are shaped by at least two sets of beliefs: (1) their beliefs about the abilities needed to succeed in that field, and (2) their beliefs about whether their group possesses these abilities. Most developmental research on gender differences in career aspirations (e.g., in STEM) has focused just on the second set of beliefs, investigating gender stereotypes about various abilities. For the first time, this symposium will bring together research on the development of gender stereotypes with research on the first set of beliefs: children’s field-specific ability beliefs (FABs).

The first three papers rely on cross-cultural evidence from the U.S. and Singapore to examine FABs about some of the most gender-imbalanced STEM fields (e.g., math, computer science), focusing in particular on whether children believe that success in these fields requires being “really, really smart” (i.e., brilliant). These papers demonstrate that (1) from a young age, children believe that success in certain STEM fields requires brilliance, (2) this belief strengthens with age, and (3) this belief is associated with early gender differences in STEM outcomes. Paper 4 tackles the second element of the equation: gender stereotypes. It reports that gender-math stereotypes strengthen over adolescence and intersect with adolescents’ ethnicities (e.g., they are stronger among White and Asian youth).

Collectively, these studies advance our understanding of how children’s beliefs about the abilities needed to succeed in a field and about who has these abilities interlock to explain gender disparities in STEM outcomes.

Sub Unit

• Social Cognition

Chairs

• Siqi Zhao, New York University

• Peipei Setoh, Nanyang Technological University

Individual Presentations

• The Development of Field-Specific Ability Beliefs and Their Relations to Girls’ and Boys’ Math Motivation - Jalisha B. Jenifer, Barnard College, Columbia University; Jilana Jaxon, New York University; Susan Cohen Levine, University of Chicago; Presenting Author: Andrei Cimpian, New York University

• The Development and Correlates of Field-Specific Ability Beliefs About Math and Reading Among Singaporean Children - Presenting Author: Siqi Zhao, New York University; Andrei Cimpian, New York University; Peipei Setoh, Nanyang Technological University

• Children Associate Brilliance with Computer Science, not Biology: Investigating the Early-Emerging Field-Specific Beliefs about Brilliance - Presenting Author: Molly Paige Tallberg, University of Chicago; Lin Bian, University of Chicago

• Adolescents’ Math Ability Gender Stereotypes and Motivational Beliefs: Testing for Replication Across Two Datasets - Presenting Author: Christine R Starr, University of California - Irvine; Yannan Gao, University of California - Irvine; Glona Lee, University of California - Irvine; Nayssan Safavian, University of California, Irvine; Charlott Rubach, University of California, Irvine; Anna-Lena Dicke, University of California, Irvine; Jacquelynne S. Eccles, University of California, Irvine; Sandra Simpkins, University of California - Irvine