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Latino parents’ science beliefs and support of high school students’ motivational beliefs: Do the relations vary across gender and familism values?

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Abstract

Based on the Eccles’ expectancy-value theory, the objectives of this study were (1) to examine the longitudinal relations between Latino parents’ science beliefs, parents’ science support, and high school students’ science motivational beliefs, and (2) to test whether these relations varied by familism values and adolescent gender. Multi-informant longitudinal survey data were collected from 104 Latino parents and adolescents during 9th and 10th grade. Parents’ perceptions of their adolescents’ science ability and value of science in 9th grade predicted higher parent science support at home in 10th grade if they were parents of boys. In contrast, these relations were not statistically significant for parents of daughters. Parent support in 9th grade predicted higher adolescent motivational beliefs one year later. This work provides evidence that parent support is important for high school student success in this understudied population.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Grants DRL-1054798 & DRL-1560889 from the National Science Foundation to Sandra Simpkins and Grant DGE-1321846 from the National Science Foundation to Gabriel Estrella. We would like to thank the principals, teachers, students, and parents of the cooperating school districts for their participation in this project as well as the ASU students who helped make this project possible.

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  1. School of Education, University of California, Irvine, 2094 Education, Irvine, CA, 92697-5500, USA

    Sandra Simpkins & Gabriel Estrella

  2. T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA

    Erin Gaskin & Erin Kloberdanz

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  1. Sandra Simpkins
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  2. Gabriel Estrella
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  4. Erin Kloberdanz
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Correspondence to Sandra Simpkins.

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Simpkins, S., Estrella, G., Gaskin, E. et al. Latino parents’ science beliefs and support of high school students’ motivational beliefs: Do the relations vary across gender and familism values?. Soc Psychol Educ 21, 1203–1224 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-018-9459-5

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