What makes a role model motivating for young girls? The effects of the role model's growth versus fixed mindsets about ability and interest.

Successful women role models can be-but are not always-effective in increasing pursuit of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers among girls. What makes a woman role model motivating for young girls? An experimental study (N = 205 girls aged 5-8 years; 42.0% girls of color) investigated the effects of a role model's messages about her own ability and interest. The model portrayed her ability and interest as quantities that developed over time (a growth mindset) or that had always been present (a fixed mindset). The role model's growth (vs. fixed) mindset messages about ability-but not interest-increased girls' interest and self-efficacy in the scientist's field, but these effects were observed only among girls of color (ds = 0.56 and 0.65 for interest and self-efficacy, respectively). The findings contribute to theory on role models and growth mindsets, and they also have implications for the design of effective role model interventions.

Purpose and goal pursuit as a self-sustaining system: Evidence of daily within-person reciprocity among adolescents in self-driven learning.

OBJECTIVE: Despite long-standing assumptions that a sense of purpose in life and goal pursuit are mutually supportive, empirical evidence of their reciprocity remains deficient. In the context of a unique out-of-school time program that empowers youth to pursue passions through self-driven learning, we examined whether purpose and one aspect of goal pursuit-perceptions of goal progress-work together to sustain themselves and each other over time. METHOD: Adolescents (N = 321) completed daily surveys throughout program enrollment (Menrollment = 69.09 days). Through dynamic structural equation modeling, we derived within-person patterns of day-to-day prediction as well as individual differences in these patterns. RESULTS: We found purpose and perceived goal progress exhibited significant daily inertia (i.e., autoregressive prediction) and reciprocity (i.e., cross-lagged prediction) at the within-person level. We also found initial evidence suggesting (a) tighter reciprocity was related to greater perceived goal progress overall and (b) people with greater purpose inertia may rely less on making goal progress to sustain momentum. CONCLUSIONS: With evidence of daily purpose-progress reciprocity, the field can look forward to replicating this work in other contexts, diving deeper into interesting patterns of within-person dynamics, and developing interventions to support youth striving.

Which role models are effective for which students? A systematic review and four recommendations for maximizing the effectiveness of role models in STEM.

Is exposing students to role models an effective tool for diversifying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)? So far, the evidence for this claim is mixed. Here, we set out to identify systematic sources of variability in STEM role models' effects on student motivation: If we determine which role models are effective for which students, we will be in a better position to maximize role models' impact as a tool for diversifying STEM. A systematic narrative review of the literature (55 articles) investigated the effects of role models on students' STEM motivation as a function of several key features of the role models (their perceived competence, their perceived similarity to students, and the perceived attainability of their success) and the students (their gender, race/ethnicity, age, and identification with STEM). We conclude with four concrete recommendations for ensuring that STEM role models are motivating for students of all backgrounds and demographics-an important step toward diversifying STEM. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40594-021-00315-x.