| Sumario: | Recent studies suggest that girls as young as 4 years of age in the US are affected by negative gender-science stereotypes and persist less than boys on science tasks. However to date, no studies have tested the presumed link between stereotypes and science task persistence. The reported preregistered study tested whether there are gender differences in persistence in children aged 5–7 years on a physical sink-or-float science task and explored whether science task persistence is related to gender-science stereotyping at this age. One-hundred-and-nine five- to seven-year-old children were recruited from a mid-sized suburban community in the Eastern United States (58% White, 9% Asian, 3% Latinx, 2% Black/African American, 28% more than one race/ethnicity; average socioeconomic status above the national average). No gender difference in persistence on the sink-or-float task was detected. A Bayesian analysis indicated moderate support for the null hypothesis of no gender effect. Instead, task accuracy and enjoyment predicted persistence. There was evidence that children held gender-STEM stereotypes; however, stereotyping was not related to persistence on the science task. Restricting the analysis to children who experienced failure early in the task did not change the results. These findings are discussed in relation to previous studies, with specific recommendations for future research to understand when and why gender differences in science persistence emerge.
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