Impact of Exposure to a Counter-Stereotypical STEM Television Program on Children’s Gender- and Race-Based STEM Occupational Schema

Fashina Aladé, Alexis R. Lauricella, Yannik Kumar and Ellen Wartella
Additional contact information
Fashina Aladé: Department of Advertising & Public Relations, Michigan State University, 404 Wilson Rd., East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
Alexis R. Lauricella: Erikson Institute, 451 N. LaSalle Street, Chicago, IL 60654, USA
Yannik Kumar: CVS Health, Chicago, IL 60606, USA
Ellen Wartella: Center on Media and Human Development, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208, USA

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-16

Abstract: Gender and racial diversity in STEM has been deemed an essential need for a sustainable future, but girls and children from underrepresented racial/ethnic backgrounds continue to show less interest in STEM than their White and male counterparts. Media has been shown to reflect children’s occupational schema from an early age, and therefore might be used to help broaden children’s beliefs about who participates in STEM. In this field-based pre/post-experimental study, children in kindergarten and first grades (N = 48, 62.5% female, M age = 6.57) viewed episodes of a STEM-focused educational television series that features a diverse group of protagonists two to three times a week for eight weeks. Their occupational schema were measured before and after exposure. Results suggest there was no quantifiable change in their attitudes. However, qualitative analysis of their open-ended responses sheds light on how children’s beliefs about who participates in STEM are shaped, i.e., by both mediated and real-world exposure.

Keywords: occupational attitudes; STEM identity; gender; race; children’s television (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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