We describe how young students situate themselves with respect to astronomy through an identity framework that features four dimensions: interest, utility value, confidence, and conceptual knowledge. Overall, about 900 Italian students, from 5th to 9th grade (9–14 years old), were involved in the study. We tested our model using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Differences between girls and boys and across school levels were also investigated. Results show that interest has both a direct and an indirect effect on astronomy identity. The indirect effect of interest on identity is mediated by utility value. Moreover, confidence mediates the effect of interest on conceptual knowledge. Concerning differences between girls and boys, we found that the effect of interest on identity is greater for girls than for boys and that the utility value mediates the effect of interest on identity for boys but not for girls. Finally, our findings show also that the students’ interest in astronomy and confidence in their performance decrease with age, with a potential negative impact on conceptual knowledge and future career choice in astronomy. The astronomy identity framework can be employed to examine the role of affective variables on performance and persistence in astronomy and to improve the design of teaching-learning activities that can potentially stimulate a lasting interest in astronomy.

中文翻译：

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用结构方程模型描述中小学生的天文身份

我们通过具有四个维度的身份框架来描述年轻学生如何在天文学方面定位自己：兴趣、效用价值、信心和概念知识。总体而言，大约 900 名 5 至 9 年级（9-14 岁）的意大利学生参与了这项研究。我们使用验证性因素分析和结构方程建模来测试我们的模型。还调查了女孩和男孩之间以及不同学校级别之间的差异。结果表明，兴趣对天文学身份有直接和间接的影响。兴趣对身份的间接影响是由效用价值介导的。此外，置信度介导了兴趣对概念知识的影响。关于女孩和男孩之间的差异，我们发现，兴趣对女孩身份的影响大于男孩，效用值介导了兴趣对男孩身份的影响，而不是女孩。最后，我们的研究结果还表明，学生对天文学的兴趣和对自己表现的信心随着年龄的增长而下降，这对天文学的概念知识和未来的职业选择有潜在的负面影响。天文学身份框架可用于检查情感变量对天文学表现和持久性的作用，并改进可能激发对天文学持久兴趣的教学活动的设计。我们的研究结果还表明，学生对天文学的兴趣和对自己表现的信心随着年龄的增长而下降，这对天文学的概念知识和未来的职业选择有潜在的负面影响。天文学身份框架可用于检查情感变量对天文学表现和持久性的作用，并改进可能激发对天文学持久兴趣的教学活动的设计。我们的研究结果还表明，学生对天文学的兴趣和对自己表现的信心随着年龄的增长而下降，这对天文学的概念知识和未来的职业选择有潜在的负面影响。天文学身份框架可用于检查情感变量对天文学表现和持久性的作用，并改进可能激发对天文学持久兴趣的教学活动的设计。