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Gender, parental and peer influences upon science attitudes and activities

This paper explores the extent to which variance in science attitudes and involvement in science activities may be attributable to gender, parental and peer influences upon 11-14 year olds in the UK. The data presented are derived from a sample of 391 pupils drawn at random, but stratified by age and gender, from Local Education Authority schools (i.e. schools within the state sector where parents make no direct payments for education). A self-completion questionnaire was administered to the pupils in school. Attitudes toward scientific change, involvement in scientific extra-curricular activity, liking and performance in school science subjects, and participation in peer youth culture were indexed, in addition to estimates of the amount of positive regard for science expressed by peers and parents. Boys had more positive attitudes to science and greater levels of participation in scientific extra-curricular activities. They also reported performing better at school science than girls. A positive attitude to science was strongly positively related to having a father and mother who support science, coming from a lower socio-economic family background, being male, and having scientific peers. Greater involvement in scientific extra-curricular activities was predicted by having a father who supports science, having parents who engage in activities jointly with their children, and having scientific peers. In terms of predicting participation in science, liking of it and success at it, these data lead to the conclusion that both parental and peer support are influential. Though it does seem that they are relatively more important in predicting variance in attitudes to science in society than as indicators of liking of or performance at school science. The problems involved in estimating whether commonly reported gender effects are mediated through peer or parental support are discussed.