The Intergenerational Transmission of Field-Specific Ability Beliefs and Gender-Brilliance Stereotypes

• In Event: Tracing the Source of Gender Disparities in STEM: Children’s Macro- and Micro-level Sociocultural Contexts

Abstract

The underrepresentation of women in STEM persists worldwide. A prominent explanation for this phenomenon appeals to two interlocking beliefs: (1) the field-specific ability belief (FAB) that STEM fields value exceptional intellectual talent (“brilliance”), and (2) the cultural gender-brilliance stereotype that associates brilliance with men more than women. Together, these beliefs have been argued to make the environment in STEM fields less conducive to the participation of girls and women (Leslie, Cimpian, et al., 2015). Developmental work suggests that children endorse both of these beliefs from a young age: That is, children endorse both brilliance-oriented FABs about STEM fields such as math and gender-brilliance stereotypes (e.g., Gunderson et al., 2017; Zhao et al., 2022). However, little research has investigated how children acquire these beliefs—the sources of these beliefs in children’s environments. To fill this gap, we investigated the possibility that parents are a source of these beliefs (Zhao et al., 2022). Using data from a large sample of parents and children from Singapore, we tested whether parents’ FABs and gender-brilliance stereotypes were related to the same beliefs in their children.

Participants were 1237 parents (1011 women, 82% Chinese, 11% Indians, 4% Malays, 3% Others, Mage = 42.15 years, SDage = 4.92) of children aged 6 to 16 years (N = 1540, 727 girls, Mage = 10.56 years, SDage = 2.50). Parents and children completed assessments of their FABs regarding math and reading (i.e., the extent to which they believe that success in each field requires brilliance) and their gender-brilliance stereotypes (Table 1). In addition, children were asked to evaluate their own intellectual abilities, and parents reported their perceptions of their children’s intellectual abilities.

In a preliminary analysis, we replicated prior findings suggesting that both parents and children endorse brilliance-oriented FABs about math (vs. reading) and gender-brilliance stereotypes. Additionally, parents—especially mothers—rated their daughters as less brilliant than their sons. Likewise, girls rated themselves lower on the brilliance dimension than boys did.

Relevant to intergenerational transmission, we observed a positive relation between parents’ and children’s FABs, β = 0.11, p < .001, as well as between parents’ and children’s gender-brilliance stereotypes (Figure 1). Parents who showed a stronger gender-brilliance stereotype had children who not only endorsed the stereotype more strongly as well, β = 0.10, p = .007, but were also more likely to perceive others as endorsing the stereotype, β = 0.08, p = .037. Parents’ perceptions of their children were consistent with children’s self-perceptions—parents who viewed their children as intellectually capable had children who expressed the same view, β = 0.17, p < .001. The strengths of these associations were not moderated by children’s age.

The present research uncovers systematic relations between parents’ and children’s FABs about math and reading and between their gender-brilliance stereotypes. To our knowledge, this is the first work to identify such associations. These findings spotlight parents as a possible source of children’s FABs and gender-brilliance stereotypes, suggesting that parents’ socialization practices may reinforce gender disparities in STEM.

Authors

• Siqi Zhao, New York University
  Presenting Author

• Andrei Cimpian, New York University

• Peipei Setoh, Nanyang Technological University