This study investigated children's STEM- and ART-related play preferences and performance. We combined parental survey data with observations of 78 children and their parents during an edutainment field study.
First, parents completed an online survey assessing their own characteristics and their children's play preferences. Parents of 4- to 6-year-old children who completed the survey were then invited to a children's festival where children engaged in both STEM and ART play activities at three play stations. Children's play choices, performance, and confidence were recorded, along with their self-reports of enjoyment, perceived difficulty, and final output accuracy. Trained researchers evaluated parental influence and practices.
Parents' predictions of their children's play choices were strongly correlated with the children's actual preferences observed in the field study. Furthermore, parents predicted their boys would prefer STEM over ART, whereas their girls would prefer ART over STEM. Consistent with these expectations, we observed clear sex differences in play behavior during the festival. Before play, in a forced STEM vs. ART choice, girls were more likely than boys to favor ART over STEM and to begin with ART-related tasks. After the play experience, girls consistently reported greater enjoyment, lower perceived difficulty, and higher output accuracy in ART compared to STEM activities.
Furthermore, we examined the interrelations between parents' and children's behavior, observed at the festival, and parental self-characteristics reported in the survey. Parenting dimensions such as control, structure, and warmth showed domain-specific associations with children's STEM play. Children's STEM play time was positively correlated with self-reported parental control but negatively correlated with parental structure and warmth. Similarly, observed parental control was positively associated with STEM play time. Observed structure was also positively related to STEM play time. These findings highlight the interplay between parental perceptions, parenting practices, and children's actual play behavior in early STEM and ART engagement.