This collaborative proposal focuses on African American parents' racial beliefs and experiences as mechanisms shaping their parenting relevant to youths' science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) success. The purpose of the longitudinal study is to investigate the relationship of parents' race related beliefs to their socialization (particularly their fostering of science and math skills) of their early adolescent children. The project links race as a social identity with parenting and young adolescents' performance in science and mathematics. The investigators will obtain survey data in Grades 6, 7, and 8 from 380 African American students, one of their parents, and their teachers. Hypotheses regarding the relationships between parents' race-related experiences and beliefs (i.e., racial discrimination, knowledge of inequalities, racial identity, and endorsement of race stereotypes) and the academic socialization of their children will be tested. Differences in these processes by child gender and ability will be examined.
The project's intellectual merit is its potential to advance understanding about STEM success for underrepresented youth. The focus will yield new insights in an area where African American youth are likely to face negative stereotypes and discriminatory treatment, and where most prior research has focused on classroom processes rather than parenting. Broader impacts of the work are in the realms of education and training; inclusion of under-represented groups; and dissemination to teachers, families, the public, and to the scientific community.
