ABSTRACT

Vocational anticipatory socialization (VAS) is a multi-year, multi-step process that begins in childhood and informs young adults about possibilities for their future work-life experience. This manuscript describes two field experiments that examine media as a VAS socialization source through an investigation of the impact of a televised STEM program geared to elementary school children between the ages of 8 and 14. Additionally, the gender of the television host was manipulated to examine the effect of host gender on increasing interest in STEM. A pretest/posttest design measured attitudes and interest changes in STEM and STEM careers following media viewing. The findings demonstrate that media acts as a socialization agent and can increase a child’s interest in STEM. Parental influence and gender differences are also discussed.

摘要

职业预期社会化 (VAS) 是一个多年、多步骤的过程，它始于童年，并告知年轻人他们未来工作生活体验的可能性。这份手稿描述了两个实地实验，通过调查面向 8 至 14 岁小学生的电视 STEM 节目的影响，将媒体作为 VAS 社会化来源。此外，电视主持人的性别被操纵以检查宿主性别对 STEM 兴趣增加的影响。前测/后测设计测量了媒体观看后 STEM 和 STEM 职业中的态度和兴趣变化。研究结果表明，媒体充当社会化代理，可以增加孩子对 STEM 的兴趣。还讨论了父母的影响和性别差异。