Children Underperform Following "Math" but Not "Spatial" Task Framing.
Increasing evidence suggests that success in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields is not only dependent upon one's actual STEM-relevant abilities but also upon one's STEM-relevant attitudes—in particular, math and spatial attitudes. Here, we examine whether simply mentioning the...
| Publicado en: | Developmental Psychology Vol. 60; no. 2; pp. 389 - 406 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
American Psychological Association
Feb2024
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=175031124&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 175031124 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00121649 DPS jtl: Developmental Psychology issn: 00121649 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Feb2024 vid: 60 iid: 2 pid: 34 pub: American Psychological Association artinfo: ui: 175031124 10.1037/dev0001603 ppf: 389 ppct: 17 formats: tig: atl: Children Underperform Following "Math" but Not "Spatial" Task Framing. aug: au: Hildebrand, Lindsey Cordes, Sara affil: Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College su: United States Black people Hispanic Americans Self-perception Task performance Academic achievement Sex distribution Technology School children White people Anxiety Mathematics Engineering Descriptive statistics Science sug: subj: Black people Hispanic Americans Self-perception Task performance Academic achievement Sex distribution Technology School children White people Anxiety United States Mathematics Engineering Descriptive statistics Science keyword: and math outcomes engineering math anxiety math attitudes math self-concept science spatial attitudes technology and math outcomes engineering math anxiety math attitudes math self-concept science spatial attitudes technology ab: Increasing evidence suggests that success in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields is not only dependent upon one's actual STEM-relevant abilities but also upon one's STEM-relevant attitudes—in particular, math and spatial attitudes. Here, we examine whether simply mentioning the math or spatial relevance of a task affects children's performance and the moderating role of children's math and spatial attitudes. Further, we examine gender differences in performance given pervasive gender gaps in STEM and early-emerging gender differences in math and spatial attitudes. Participants (221 first- to fourth-grade children from the United States; 113 girls, 108 boys; 52% White, 16% Black, 14% Asian, 9% Hispanic or Latinx, 18% multiple races/ethnicities) were introduced to a novel task framed as tapping into math or spatial abilities (or no framing [control condition]). Children then completed math and spatial anxiety and self-concept measures. Results indicate that children who heard the math task framing were less accurate relative to children in the control condition, and the effect was larger for those with higher math anxiety or lower math self-concept, but it was not different for boys and girls. Children who heard the spatial task framing, however, performed comparably to children in the control condition. Though both math and spatial attitudes revealed identical patterns of gender differences (with higher anxiety and lower self-concept in girls than boys), there were no gender differences in performance. This study highlights the salient role of math attitudes early in development and provides key insights for future work aimed at increasing STEM outcomes. Public Significance Statement: Findings reveal that children perform worse on a novel task when it is described as being related to math—but not spatial—skills, and this effect is strongest for children with more negative math attitudes. Moreover, girls had more negative math and spatial attitudes than did boys, but gender differences were not observed in performance on the task. Findings provide key insights into processes implicated in science, technology, engineering, and math outcomes. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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