(GSE/RES)
Although the mathematics performance and high school math course taking gap between males and females has narrowed, females are still less likely than males to pursue college degrees and jobs in engineering, physical sciences, and computer sciences. Why? What makes individuals want to study and work in the physical sciences, IT, and engineering? Even if individuals feel competent in these areas, they may not want to pursue careers linked to these skills. Because the Eccles Expectancy-Value Theory of Achievement-Related Choices is a useful theoretical framework to address this question, we propose to use it to investigate: (1) the psychological and social (experiences in math and science classes) origins of individual and group (gender and ethnic) differences in young people?s math, science, and language arts ability self-perceptions and interests; (2) the association of these ability self-perceptions and subjective task values, as well both personal and social identities, with young men?s and women?s subsequent STEM and non-STEM related educational and occupational goals. We also propose to study historical changes in the science related motivational beliefs and subjective task values of three generations of students.
We propose to conduct secondary analyses on three large scale longitudinal datasets that represent 3 different generations of students: The Michigan Study of Adolescent Life Transitions (MSALT), Sloan Study of Youth and Social Development (SSYSD), and Texas Youth Study (TYS) to model the social and psychological influences on young men?s and women?s decisions regarding entry and persistence in STEM-related occupations. We focus on the middle school years because these years have been shown to be pivotal in students? subsequent interest in STEM-related fields. We have two broad goals. Goal 1: To assess the historical changes in middle school students motivational beliefs related to math and science. We will use all three data sets to meet this goal because all three have extensive information on the motivational beliefs about math and science in the middle school years. Goal 2: To investigate the relationship between experiences in math, science and other courses and the early development of adolescents? science and math ability self-concepts and subjective task values and then to assess the meditational role of these beliefs in explaining the associations between these classroom experiences and subsequent educational and occupational choices in two generations of students. We will use the MSALT and the SSYSD data sets to address this goal because: (1) these two samples have extensive information on the experiences students have within their math and other classes during the middle school years and (2) have been followed over time providing extensive information on their high school and post-secondary school educational and occupational aspirations and choices.