Over-engaged parenting and science achievement in early childhood

过度投入的养育和幼儿期的科学成就

• 批准号: 2247807
• 负责人: Julia Leonard
• 金额: $ 179.9万
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-06-15 至 2028-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2247807&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Over; engaged; parenting; science; achievement

Acquiring scientific knowledge and skills requires persisting through challenges, yet it has become increasingly common for parents in the United States to step in and solve problems for their children. This type of over-engaged parenting leads preschool-age children to have lower persistence, lower executive function, and worse reading and math achievement in grade school across socioeconomic backgrounds. However, prior work leaves open major theoretical and practical questions about the beliefs that drive over-engaged parenting and children’s response to it. Our research aims to fill these gaps by examining the causes and consequences of over-engaged parenting so that we can better understand how caregivers can support children's scientific success upon school entry. This project is supported by NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad, and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development, and by the Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12) program, which supports applied research in formal STEM learning environments. The proposed research will take a multi-method approach to uncover the basic cognitive mechanisms underlying caregivers' over-engaged behavior and children's response to it. In Study 1, researchers will employ observational and experimental methods to test whether parents’ beliefs about learning and task outcome drive their over-engaged behavior on science and non-science tasks. In Study 2, researchers will conduct experiments to determine which inferences drive the demotivating effects of over-engaged parenting on young children’s science persistence, as well as how parents can be involved in children's lives without undermining their motivation. In Study 3, researchers will run a longitudinal study assessing how over-engaged parenting during the preschool years relates to children’s science engagement and achievement during the transition to formal schooling. These studies will be conducted in collaboration with community partners, schools, and science museums to ensure the inclusion of families from diverse backgrounds. Taken together, the results will provide critical insight into how caregivers can foster young children's science motivation and achievement.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

获取科学知识和技能需要在挑战中坚持不懈，但在美国，父母介入并为孩子解决问题已经变得越来越常见。这种过度投入的父母教育导致学龄前儿童在社会经济背景下，在小学阶段的毅力较差，执行功能较差，阅读和数学成绩较差。然而，先前的工作留下了重大的理论和实践问题，即驱动过度投入的父母教育的信念以及儿童对此的反应。我们的研究旨在通过考察过度投入的父母教育的原因和后果来填补这些空白，以便我们能够更好地了解照顾者如何在孩子入学后支持他们取得科学成功。该项目得到了NSF的EDU核心研究(ECR)计划的支持。ECR计划强调基础STEM教育研究，以产生该领域的基础知识。在基本、广泛和持久的关键领域进行投资：STEM学习和STEM学习环境，扩大对STEM和STEM劳动力发展的参与，以及Discovery Research PreK-12(DRK-12)计划，该计划支持正式STEM学习环境中的应用研究。这项拟议的研究将采用多种方法来揭示照顾者过度投入行为背后的基本认知机制以及儿童对此的反应。在研究1中，研究人员将使用观察和实验方法来测试父母对学习和任务结果的信念是否会驱动他们在科学和非科学任务上的过度投入行为。在研究2中，研究人员将进行实验，以确定过度投入的父母教育对幼儿科学坚持能力的打击效果是由哪些推论驱动的，以及父母如何在不削弱孩子动机的情况下参与孩子的生活。在研究3中，研究人员将进行一项纵向研究，评估学龄前几年过度投入的父母教育与儿童在向正规学校过渡期间的科学投入和成就之间的关系。这些研究将与社区伙伴、学校和科学博物馆合作进行，以确保纳入来自不同背景的家庭。综上所述，这些结果将为照顾者如何培养幼儿的科学动机和成就提供关键的洞察力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。