The emotional costs of computers: an expectancy-value theory analysis of predominantly low-socioeconomic status minority students’ STEM attitudes

ABSTRACT

There is a strong push to increase American students’ interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematic (STEM) careers. However, minority and female students remain underrepresented in the STEM fields. Therefore, it is essential that we continue to examine the potential factors that both incite and dissuade STEM interest. We apply Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT) to examine STEM attitudes of predominantly low-socioeconomic status minority elementary school students over the course of a computing intervention. Furthermore, we integrate the digital inequality mental access conceptualization of ‘emotional costs’ into the EVT model in order to predict students’ negative STEM attitudes. Data are from a large-scale computing intervention that took place in a primarily minority, high poverty, urban elementary school district located in the southeastern USA. Results indicate that positive expectancies for success and subjective task values predict students’ positive STEM attitudes. Emotional costs toward technology primarily predict negative STEM attitudes. Students’ expectancies/values and emotional costs may have a ‘push-and-pull’ effect on the formation of STEM attitudes. This study successfully links digital disparities to STEM disparities by integrating the digital inequality concept of emotional costs. Practically, we conclude that future computing interventions should increase students’ academic-related expectancies and values while also minimizing their emotional costs in order to address both digital and STEM inequalities. Theoretically, we conclude that broad conceptualizations of emotional costs should be included in future studies to help explain negative attitudes/motivations toward STEM-related topics.

KEYWORDS:

• STEM disparity
• digital inequality
• expectancy-value theory
• emotional costs

Acknowledgement

The views expressed in this manuscript reflect those of the authors and not the National Science Foundation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Christopher Ball is currently a PhD student in the Media and Information Studies program at Michigan State University. His research interests involve the influence of new technologies on society and how these technologies can be harnessed for research, education, and outreach purposes. More specifically, his research interests involve the use of interactive media and technologies such as video games, virtual worlds, and virtual reality to foster prosocial outcomes [email: [email protected]].

Kuo-Ting Huang is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Media and Information at Michigan State University. His research interests lie in information and communication technologies (ICTs) with a focus on the effects of virtual environments on learning and education. His current research focuses on the social psychological effects of ICTs on education and health [email: [email protected]].

R.V. Rikard is a Postdoctoral Research Associate under the direction of Dr. Shelia Cotten in the Department of Media and Information at Michigan State University. R.V.’s research interests include: the intersection of health literacy and health disparities, the social impact of technology on health and community health, the connection between online health messages using social media/social network site and offline health behaviors, and the social science of “Big Data” [email: [email protected]].

Shelia R. Cotten is Professor in the Department of Media and Information at Michigan State University. She has served as the Chair of CITASA. Her work has been funded by The National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Aging. Cotten’s work addresses key social problems with sociological tools related to technology access, use, and impacts/outcomes. Her body of work was recognized by the CITASA Award for Public Sociology in 2013 [email: [email protected]].

Notes

1 We also tested for the effects of the teacher intervention as well as the effects of schools and classrooms. We further controlled for teacher's self-efficacy and attitude toward the computing intervention. These variables did not have a significant effect on our results, so we did not include teacher-related variables in our analyses. Results are available from the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation [DRL-1404467].