Parents explain more often to boys than to girls during shared scientific thinking
Abstract
Young children's everyday scientific thinking often occurs in the context of parent-child interactions. In a study of naturally occurring family conversation, parents were three times more likely to explain science to boys than to girls while using interactive science exhibits in a museum. This difference in explanation occurred despite the fact that parents were equally likely to talk to their male and female children about how to use the exhibits and about the evidence generated by the exhibits. The findings suggest that parents engaged in informal science activities with their children may be unintentionally contributing to a gender gap in children's scientific literacy well before children encounter formal science instruction in grade school.
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Mothers provide more explanations of scientific content in a museum setting when talking to boys than to girls.
“With regard to academics, mothers have been shown to provide more explanations of scienti fi c content in a museum setting when talking to boys than to girls (Crowley et al., 2001), perhaps because parents view their sons as more competent in math as opposed to their daughters who they view as better in language arts (Eccles et al., 1990).”
From Gender and Education (2015) · cites this paper as Crowley et al., 2001
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- Authors
- Crowley, K., Callanan, M. A., Tenenbaum, H. R., & Allen, E.
- Affiliations
- University of Pittsburgh (US)
- University of California, Santa Cruz (US)
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2001-05
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 258-261
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- OpenAlex
- W2170566314
- Cited by
- 482
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 31 · 2021: 29 · 2020: 116 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 18
- FWCI
- 33.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Open Research (University of Surrey) (submittedVersion)
- Surrey Research Insight Open Access (The University of Surrey) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD26228)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Science Education and Pedagogy
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Science Education and Perceptions
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Museology › Museums and Cultural Heritage
- Keywords
- gender differences, parent-child interaction, informal science learning, museum exhibits, children's scientific thinking, science in everyday life
- MeSH terms
- Child, Child, Preschool, Communication, Female, Humans, Infant, Male, Parent-Child Relations, Persuasive Communication, Science, Sex Factors, Chi-Square Distribution
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