No abstract

Efforts to broaden participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) particularly for racially or ethnically minoritized students continue to be a pressing issue in education. Although motivation constructs of expectancy-value theory (EVT) are known to predict academic outcomes including undergraduate STEM interest and persistence, less is known about how students’ cultural capitals play a role in the relationship between motivation and postsecondary STEM attainment. Using a sociocultural lens, we explored the interplay of elements of EVT and community cultural wealth and their associations with Latina/o/x students’ (N = 152) intentions to persist in their STEM major at a Hispanic-serving institution. Results indicated that subjective task value for STEM significantly predicted persistence intentions; this association was significantly moderated by aspirational capital, such that aspirational capital was positively related to intent to persist when STEM value was low. Findings contribute to the gap in scholarly understandings of how culturalized assets operate within traditional theories of achievement motivation and suggest that Latina/o/x STEM major students may benefit from the purposeful validation of these assets.