Examining the Influence of Gender, Outcome Expectations, and Campus Climate on Engineering Student Persistence Intentions

• In Event: Interrogating Access to STEM Among Underrepresented Students

Abstract

Researchers have conducted numerous studies to improve engineering student retention by taking into account the contributing factors (i.e., outcome expectation, self-efficacy, gender, climate) that affected retention rates. In this study, we investigated the relationships between gender, outcome expectations, campus climate and engineering student persistence intentions by employing multiple regression analyses. Results indicated (1) after controlling for gender, career outcome expectations, together with campus climate, statistically significantly predicted engineering students’ intentions to stay in engineering; (2) campus climate did not moderate the relationship between outcome expectations and engineering students’ persistence; (3) after controlling for outcome expectations, gender did not moderate the relationship between campus climate and engineering students’ persistence intentions.

Authors

• Syahrul Amin, Texas A&M University - College Station

• Jose Lopez, Texas A&M University - College Station

• Karen E. Rambo-Hernandez, Texas A&M University - College Station