Location
Dr. Cecilia Cheung, Associate Professor, UC Riverside
Talk title: Who is Good at ____ and Why? Parents’ Role in Children’s Competence Beliefs
Abstract: Research has shown that children’s views about their own and others’ ability can influence their approach to learning, with implications for their motivation and achievement in school. How do children come to understand who is competent, and why? I propose that parents’ role is critical in the process. In this talk, I will present three approaches to address this question. First, I will present results from a longitudinal study to shed light on how parents’ stereotypes about math and science ability shape children’s competence perceptions over the course of middle and high school. Second, I will present findings from a controlled laboratory experiment to demonstrate how parents’ views about children’s ability on a logical-reasoning task can alter parenting practices pertinent to fostering children’s competence beliefs. Finally, I will discuss initial observations from a mixed methods inquiry that focuses on storybooks as a possible avenue through which parents transmit their own ability beliefs to young children. Together, these studies underscore the important role of parents in developing children’s competence beliefs.
