Dou Remy, Villa Nicole, Cian Heidi, Sunbury Susan, Sadler Philip M, Sonnert Gerhard
STEM Transformation Institute, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA.
Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance, Augusta, ME 04330, USA.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2025 Jan 21;15(2):106. doi: 10.3390/bs15020106.
Research shows that family conversations about STEM topics positively influence children's STEM identity development. This study expands on these findings by exploring how family conversations STEM content contribute to this development. Specifically, we focus on how non-academic forms of family support-as described by students who face systemic racial discrimination in STEM-shape these conversations. In this way, we extend existing work by exploring the extent to which families' dispositions to talk about a wide range of topics-not just in STEM-might further support youth identification with STEM fields. Using Family Communication Patterns Theory (FCPT) to guide our analysis, we examined data from a survey of first-year college students ( = 1134) attending Minority-Serving Institutions and public universities in the United States. The survey asked students to reflect on their childhood conversations and their current sense of identity in STEM. Using structural equation modeling, we found that family disposition to engage in conversations about a broad range of topics was linked to more frequent STEM-related conversations during childhood and, in turn, greater identification as a "STEM person" in college. These findings highlight the complex ways that family communication patterns can support construction of an individual's sense of themselves as a STEM person in later years. By interpreting these findings using FCPT, we highlight the nature of family communication patterns that can contribute to STEM identity formation.
研究表明，家庭中关于STEM主题的对话会对孩子的STEM身份认同发展产生积极影响。本研究通过探讨家庭对话中的STEM内容如何促进这一发展，对这些发现进行了拓展。具体而言，我们关注的是那些在STEM领域面临系统性种族歧视的学生所描述的非学术形式的家庭支持如何塑造这些对话。通过这种方式，我们通过探索家庭谈论广泛话题（不仅仅是STEM领域）的倾向在多大程度上可能进一步支持年轻人对STEM领域的认同，从而扩展了现有研究。我们运用家庭沟通模式理论（FCPT）来指导分析，研究了对美国少数族裔服务机构和公立大学的1134名一年级大学生进行的一项调查数据。该调查要求学生反思他们童年时期的对话以及他们目前在STEM领域的身份认同感。通过结构方程模型，我们发现家庭参与广泛话题对话的倾向与童年时期更频繁的STEM相关对话有关，进而与大学期间更强的“STEM人”身份认同有关。这些发现凸显了家庭沟通模式在支持个体在后期将自己视为STEM人的过程中所采用的复杂方式。通过运用FCPT来解读这些发现，我们突出了有助于STEM身份形成的家庭沟通模式的本质。
