In order to support STEM success for all students, particularly those who have been historically marginalized from STEM, our research addresses the following overarching questions: QUESTIONS:
How do students’ STEM motivational beliefs change over time?
How do families support their adolescents in STEM?
How do adolescents’ STEM motivational beliefs and family support vary based on the intersections of race/ethnicity, gender, immigrant generation, and college generation?
Do these patterns replicate across datasets that vary in historical time periods and methodology?
Across different datasets, we have found gender differences in high school students’ math competence-related beliefs within Asian, White, and Latinx adolescents, but not Black adolescents. Similarly, we have found evidence of math gender stereotypes favoring boys across datasets in White families, but not Black families. Replication findings such as these highlight the importance of including both gender and race/ethnicity in research examining students’ STEM motivational beliefs. (Rubach et al., 2022; Starr et al., 2022).
Furthermore, using datasets from different historical time points we have found evidence that gender differences in adolescents' math competence beliefs favoring boys have not changed in 40 years. These may partly be due to math gender stereotypes; we found evidence that beliefs favoring boys have not changed among White parents in nearly 30 years.(Rubach et al., 2022; Starr et al., 2022; Starr & Simpkins, 2021).
Selected Publications & Talks:
Starr, C. R., Ramos Carranza, P., & Simpkins, S. D. (2022). Stability and changes in high school students' STEM career expectations: Variability based on STEM support and parent education. Journal of Adolescence, 94(6), 906–919. https://doi.org/10.1002/jad.12067
Rubach, C., Lee, G., Starr, C. R., Gao, Y., Safavian , N., Dicke, A. L., Eccles, J. S., & Simpkins, S. D. (2022). Is There any Evidence of Historical Changes in Gender Differences in American High School Students’ Math Competence-Related Beliefs from the 1980s to the 2010s?. International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology, 14(2), 55–126. Retrieved from https://genderandset.open.ac.uk/index.php/genderandset/article/view/1322
Starr, C. R., Tulagan, N., & Simpkins, S. D. (2022). Black and Latinx adolescents’ STEM motivational beliefs: A systematic review of the literature on parent stem support. Educational Psychology Review, 34(4), 1877–1917. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-022-09700-6
Starr, C. R., Gao, Y., Lee, G., Safavian, N., Rubach, C., Dicke, A. L., Eccles, J. S., & Simpkins, S. D. (2022). Parents’ math gender stereotypes and their correlates: An examination of the similarities and differences over the past 25 years. Sex Roles, 87(5), 603-619. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-022-01337-7
Hsieh, T., & Simpkins, S. D. (2022). Longitudinal associations between parent degree/occupation, parent support, and adolescent motivational beliefs in STEM. Journal of Adolescence, 94(5), 728-747. https://doi.org/10.1002/jad.12059
Hsieh, T., & Simpkins, S. D. (2022). The patterns of adolescents' math and science motivational beliefs: Examining within-racial ethnic group changes and their relations to STEM outcomes. AERA Open, 8. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584221083673
Soto-Lara, S., & Simpkins, S. D. (2022). Parent support of Mexican-descent high school adolescents' science education: A culturally-grounded framework. Journal of Adolescent Research, 37(4), 541-570. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558420942478
Tulagan, N. B., Puente, K., & Simpkins, S. D. (2022). Latinx adolescents' school-related science conversations with family members: Associations with adolescents' science expectancy-value beliefs in high school. Applied Developmental Science. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2022.2045201
Hsieh, T., Simpkins, S. D., & Eccles, J. S. (2021). Gender by racial/ethnic intersectionality in the patterns of adolescents' math motivation and their math achievement and engagement. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 66, 101974. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2021.101974
Lee, G., & Simpkins, S. D. (2021). Ability self-concept and parental support may protect adolescents when they experience low support from their math teachers. Journal of Adolescence, 88(1), 48-57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2021.01.008
Puente, K., Starr, C. R., Eccles, J. S., & Simpkins, S. D. (2021). Developmental trajectories of science identity beliefs: Within-group differences among Black, Latinx, Asian, and White students. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 50, 2394-2411. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01493-1 Ramos Carranza, P., Simpkins, S.D. (2021) Parent and sibling science support for Latinx adolescents. Social Psychology of Education, 24, 511–535. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-021-09620-3
Starr, C. R. & Simpkins, S. D. (2021). High school students’ math and science gender stereotypes: Relations with their STEM outcomes and socializers’ stereotypes. Social Psychology of Education, 24(1), 273–298. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-021-09611-4
Jiang, S., Simpkins, S. D., & Eccles, J. S. (2020). Individuals’ math and science motivation and their subsequent STEM choices and achievement in high school and college: A longitudinal study of gender and college generation status differences. Developmental Psychology, 56(11), 2137–2151. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001110
Hsieh, T ., Liu, Y., & Simpkins, S. D. (2019). Changes in U.S. Latino/a high school students’ science motivational beliefs: Within group differences across science subjects, gender, immigrant status, and perceived support. Frontiers in Psychology, 22, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00380
Rubach, C., Gao, Y., Starr, C. R.; Safavian, N., Dicke, A. L., Eccles, J. S., Simpkins, S. D. (2021, July). High School Students’ Math Motivational Beliefs: An examination of the Associations and Gender Differences across Five Large U.S. Datasets. In Symposium “Helping or Hindering Girls’ STEM Motivational Beliefs: Students’ STEM Achievement, Gender Stereotypes, and Teacher Support across Five Large U.S. Datasets” at the Network Gender and STEM Conference, Sydney, Australia.
Starr, C. R., Dicke, A. L., Rubach, C., Lee, G., Safavian, N., Gao, Y., Eccles, J. S., & Simpkins, S. D. (2021, July). Parent and child gender stereotypes about math: Findings from four U.S. datasets from 1984 to 2011. In Symposium “Helping or Hindering Girls’ STEM Motivational Beliefs: Students’ STEM Achievement, Gender Stereotypes, and Teacher Support across Five Large U.S. Datasets” at the Network Gender and STEM Conference, Sydney, Australia.
Hsieh, T., Kang, H., & Simpkins, S. D. (2021, April). Exploring leverage points to increase Latinx high school students’ identification with STEM: Differences across race/ethnicity. Paper accepted to the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Online Conference.
Hsieh, T., Ramos Carranza, P., Yu, M. V., & Simpkins, S. D. (2021, April). STEM extracurricular activities and adolescents' STEM performance, motivational beliefs, and aspirations in high school. Poster accepted to the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Online Conference.
Lee, G., & Simpkins, S. D. (2021, April). Talking to fathers might help when African American adolescents experience low support from their teachers. Paper accepted to the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Online Conference.