Will it Sink or Float? No Gender Differences in Five- to Seven-Year-Old Children's Persistence on a Science Task.
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 preregister...
| Published in: | Journal of Cognition & Development Vol. 26; no. 5; pp. 743 - 769 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
2025
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=188876054&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 188876054 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 15248372 7M7 jtl: Journal of Cognition & Development issn: 15248372 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2025 vid: 26 iid: 5 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 188876054 10.1080/15248372.2025.2484214 ppf: 743 ppct: 26 formats: tig: atl: Will it Sink or Float? No Gender Differences in Five- to Seven-Year-Old Children's Persistence on a Science Task. aug: au: Stucke, Nicole J. Doebel, Sabine affil: George Mason University su: Gender differences (Sociology) Stereotypes Task performance School children Satisfaction Buoyancy Bayesian analysis sug: subj: Gender differences (Sociology) Stereotypes Task performance School children Satisfaction Buoyancy Bayesian analysis ab: 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. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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