Impact of Cognitive and Psychological Factors on Math/Science Career Interest: The Gender Moderating Effect

• In Event: 58.084 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: 58.084-4 - Poster Session 2: Motivational and Affective Processes

Abstract

This study was to test a proposed model consisting of mathematics anxiety, mathematics self-efficacy, and implicit theories of intelligence in predicting mathematics/science career interest in early adolescents. Participants were one hundred and fifty two seventh-grade students in a middle school in the United States. Multi-group path analyses of the survey data revealed both similarities and differences in the relation among the intended variables by gender. While mathematics anxiety had both direct and indirect effects (via mathematics self-efficacy) on mathematics/ science career interest, such effects were larger for girls than for boys. Implicit theories of intelligence had both direct and indirect effects (via mathematics self-efficacy) on mathematics/science career interest for boys, but not for girls. Implications of the results are discussed.

Authors

• Xiaoxia Huang, Western Kentucky University

• Jie Zhang, University of Houston