University of Michigan - Fathers have a major impact on the degree of interest their daughters develop in math, according to a long-term University of Michigan study that has traced the sources of the continuing gender gap in math and science performance.

“We’ve known for a while now that females do as well as males on tests that measure ability in math and science,” said Pamela Davis-Kean, a psychologist at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR). “But women are still underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math graduate programs and in careers based on those disciplines.”

It’s as if women are saying, “I can, but I don’t want to,” according to Davis-Kean.

Davis-Kean and colleagues analyzed how parents’ values and attitudes affect children’s math performance and later interest, and how these attitudes vary by the child’s gender. They used data from a longitudinal study of more than 800 children and a large group of their parents that began in 1987 and continued through 2000.

They found that parents provided more math-supportive environments for their sons than for their daughters, including buying more math and science toys for the boys. They also spent more time on math and science activities with their sons than with their daughters.

Davis-Kean and colleagues also found that parents’ attitudes, particularly stereotypes they hold about whether math and science are more important for boys than for girls, have a significant effect on their children’s later math achievement, and even on their eventual career choices.

They found that girls’ interest in math decreases as their fathers’ gender stereotypes increase, whereas boys’ interest in math increases as their fathers’ gender stereotypes increase.

“Fathers’ gender stereotypes are very important in supporting or in undermining daughters’ choices to pursue training in math and science,” Davis-Kean said.

Editorial note - We post this news here not only because it is interesting in itself but also because academic competence and interest in learning support children’s (reality-based) self-esteem and help them to stay engaged in healthy, positive activities and pursuits, all of which contribute to a healthier lifestyle and a happier and less stressful adolescence and adulthood - Dr. Z.