The relations of family background, parents' interest, and confidence in STEM with children's STEM self-efficacy in Shenzhen

Abstract

<p>It has been proposed that parents play a vital role in children’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) learning environment, as previous studies substantiate that there are relations between parents’ attitudes and family background with children’s academic performance. However, until now, there is no quantitative research on the relations between parent-related factors: family background, parents’ confidence and interest in STEM, with children’s STEM selfefficacy. Hence, the purpose of this study is to examine whether these parent-related factors affect children’s STEM self-efficacy and how they affect it. This research collects data from 110 pairwise samples of parents and children in Shenzhen. A structural equation model examines the above-mentioned relations, which suggests that family background and parents’ interests in STEM have significantly positive effects on children’s self-efficacy in STEM, while, contradicting what the previous study suggests, parents’ confidence doesn’t seem to affect children’s study self-efficacy in STEM.<br></p>