Examining changes in adolescents’ high school math and science motivational beliefs and their relations to parental STEM support and STEM major choice at the intersectionality of gender and college generation status.

Abstract

Drawing on the situated expectancy-value, dimensional comparison theories, and the intersectionality approach, this article examined the changes in adolescents' math and science motivational beliefs, the parental and college correlates of those beliefs, and the differences at the intersection of gender and college generation status (i.e., female and male firstand continuing-generation college students). Findings based on the nationally representative high-school longitudinal study data (N = 12,070; M age = 14 years; 54% female students; 28% first-generation college students; and 14% Latinx, 9% Black, 10% Asian, and 57% White) suggest that although adolescents' math and science ability self-concepts declined during high school, their science interest remained stable, and their math and science utility values increased. Adolescents' motivational beliefs in ninth grade and the changes from ninth to 11th grade positively predicted whether they declared a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) college major. Parents' ninthgrade STEM support was more consistently associated with adolescents' concurrent beliefs compared to the changes in their beliefs. Finally, we found that female first-generation college students, who were more likely to be Latinx and Black students, tended to have lower math and science motivational beliefs, received less parental STEM support, and were less likely to choose a STEM major than their peers. The findings of this study indicate adolescents' math and science motivational development in high school matters for their college majors and that certain understudied groups, including female first-generation college students, may experience acute marginalization in STEM and warrant further attention. Public Significance StatementThis article examined the changes in adolescents' math and science motivational beliefs and their correlation with parental support and subsequent science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) major choices. Our findings have direct implications for policy, practice, and interventions that seek to increase the long-term pursuit of careers in STEM to focus on boosting the development of adolescents' math and science motivational beliefs during high school as well as parental STEM support. This article draws attention to a marginalized but understudied group in STEM, namely female first-generation college students.