The social contagion of utility value: How parents’ beliefs about the usefulness of science predict their children’s motivation and achievement

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether parents’ utility value perceptions predicted their children’s utility value perceptions, demonstrating social contagion effects. We also examined whether utility value would predict achievement. This is a cross-sectional study that utilized data from a subsample of adolescent students from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA 2015), which focused on science learning and achievement from 18 regions. We performed multi-level structural equation modeling to analyze the data. Results revealed that parents’ utility value perceptions predicted students’ utility value perceptions, which, in turn, predicted science achievement. The findings of this study provide evidence of the social contagion of utility value perceptions from parents to their children and the critical role of utility value in predicting achievement across various regions/countries. Our study highlights the crucial role parents play in adolescents’ motivational and learning outcomes and suggest parental involvement in programs toward enhancing adolescents’ motivation and achievement.

‘Am I to blame because my child is not motivated to do math?’: Relationships between parents’ attitudes, beliefs and practices towards mathematics and students’ mathematics motivation and achievement

“…Parenting represents one of the main lines of research in this field, which is sustained both by conceptual models and evidence of how parents' behaviour and Extended author information available on the last page of the article beliefs impact their children's motivation to learn and do well in school (e.g. Dinkelmann & Bluff, 2016;Eccles, 2007;Eccles & Wigfield, 2020;Gonida & Cortina, 2014;Nalipay et al, 2021). In the present paper, we address this issue in the context of mathematics learning in primary school (i.e.…”

“…Research on the STEM domains using Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data has also shown that parents' utility value perceptions predicted their children's achievement, both with a direct effect and through an association with children's utility value (Nalipay et al, 2021), with results being similar across several regions and countries. Similarly, Šimunović et al (2018) observed that parents' utility value predicted children's value, though this was partly through the mediation of children's perceptions of parents' encouragement of STEM interests.…”

Why do I teach? Teachers' instrumental and prosocial motivation predict teaching quality across East and West

“…Nevertheless, cultural differences were observed wherein students' utility value was a stronger predictor of reading, math, and science achievement in countries that place a higher value on schooling (King et al, 2020). Another study on students from 18 countries revealed that both parents' and students' utility value perceptions of science were positive predictors of students' achievement in science (Nalipay et al, 2021). Likewise, both teachers' and students' utility value for history positively predicted students' achievement in history classes (Han et al, 2019).…”

Modeling gender differences in the job promotion process: Replication and extension of Martell et al. (1996).

“…The Martell et al (1996) simulation has proven highly influential as a demonstration of how small levels of gender bias may give rise to glass ceilings and pay disparities (e.g., Cundiff, 2022), but also as a broader demonstration of the societal significance of seemingly small effects, such as the impact of parents’ educational values on children’s education (Nalipay et al, 2021) and the positive impact of interpersonal contact on the reduction of transphobia (Kanamori & Xu, 2022). The simulation has been cited over 500 times in Google Scholar, and it figured prominently in Google Ventures’s (2014) oft-viewed program on unconscious bias as evidence that even small differences in treatment due to unconscious biases merit intervention and concern.…”