Gender, parental, and peer influences upon science attitudes and activities

This paper explom the exlent to which variance in science attitudes and involvement in science activities may bc attributable to gender, parental and p”r influences upon 11-14 year olds in the UK. The data pnsmted 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 extracurricular activity. liking and performance in schwl science subjects, and participation in peer youth culture were indexed, in addition to estimates of the amount of positive regard for science expressed by pem and parents. Bays had more positive attitudes to science and grenter levels of participation in scientific cxtra-curricular activities. They also reported performing bctter at school science than girls. A positive attitude to science was strongly positively related Lo having a father and mother who support science, coming from a lower socio-ewnomic family back-ground, being male, and having scientific p”. Greater involvement in scientific extra