Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

Publication Title

Sex Roles

Keywords

science education, human sex differences, reasoning, high school education, achievement motivation

Abstract

Taking advanced science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses in high school can support persistence in STEM. Given gender enrollment inequities in many advanced STEM courses, the current study explored potential gender differences in predictors of and reasoning about advanced STEM course intentions in a sample of high school students. Participants (N = 750, Mage = 15.10 years, SD = 0.83, 50.5% boys) attending five public high schools in the southeastern United States responded to online questionnaires regarding their current STEM classes and advanced course intentions as well as an open-ended item to capture their STEM intention reasoning. Examining results of the multi-group logistic regression and adolescents’ open-ended responses reveals potential gender differences in motivational factors and highlights the importance of utility value and receiving good STEM class grades (i.e., A’s and B’s) in shaping their advanced STEM course intentions. Findings also suggest that bolstering girls’ interest, self-efficacy, and perceptions of competence in STEM encourages their high school STEM course enrollment. Parental encouragement and others’ efforts to foster utility value and expectancy value can encourage boys’ and girls’ interest in enrolling in advanced STEM courses.

Funding Source

This project was funded by the National Science Foundation (DRL-1941992). This article was published Open Access thanks to a transformative agreement between Milner Library and Springer Nature.

Comments

First published in Sex Roles (2025): https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-025-01595-1

DOI

10.1007/s11199-025-01595-1

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