Examining Adolescent Daughters' and their Parents' Implicit Math-Gender Stereotypes

Women continue to be underrepresented in STEM fields, and research suggests that math-gender stereotypes may be a contributing factor. In the present research I examined daughters and parents implicit math-gender stereotypes during an important developmental period for career-related decisions: late adolescence. Participants (N=415) included adolescent girls (N=185, Mage=17) and at least one parent (N=230, Mage =49). Implicit math-gender stereotyping was measured using an IAT (Greenwald et al., 1998), and explicit stereotyping, math attitudes and math ability were measured using self-reports. Daughters and parents demonstrated significant implicit and explicit stereotyping, but no relationship emerged between daughters and either parents math-gender stereotypes. Moreover, parents math stereotyping did not predict their daughters math attitudes or ability. However, daughters math attitudes and ability were predicted by their own implicit and explicit stereotyping. These findings highlight the importance of challenging math-gender stereotypes across development.

Author dc:creator

• Lapytskaia, Christina

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Steele, Jennifer

• Social psychology

Statement dc:rights

• Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10315/35485

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:yorkspace.library.yorku.ca:10315/35485