Date of Award

Fall 9-5-2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Catherine Haden

Abstract

In this project, we examined relations between parental talk and children’s affect on children’s STEM talk during an engineering-related activity (i.e., tinkering) in a local children’s museum. We characterized children’s affect in terms of valence (positive or negative) and activation (activating or deactivating), and parental talk was characterized as autonomy supportive or directive, as well as STEM-related or not. Parents and their 4- to 10-year-old children were recruited at the entrance of the Tinkering Lab exhibit at Chicago Children’s Museum. Parents and children were video and audio recorded during the activity. We coded parents’ and children’s behaviors using a time-sampling approach. Through a time-series analysis, we examined associations between children’s affect, parents’ talk, and children’s STEM talk minute by minute during tinkering. Results suggest that the more children expressed activating affect and positive affect in one minute of the activity, the more they talked about STEM in the next minute. In addition, the more negative affect children expressed, the more directives parents used subsequently. Finally, parents’ STEM-related directives were associated with greater STEM talk during reflection only among children who experienced high levels of negative affect, or children who experienced low levels of positive affect, during tinkering. Our findings highlight the importance of considering children’s affect when designing informal STEM activities, and they suggest that parents’ STEM-related directives can help support STEM engagement among children who are struggling during a hands-on activity.

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