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Poster #71 - Examining Latino Adolescents’ Gender and STEM Identities in Relation to STEM Commitment and Grades

Sat, March 23, 8:00 to 9:15am, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 1, Exhibit Hall B

Integrative Statement

Within the U.S., Latinos are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers, with only 7% of Latinos employed in STEM fields (Pew Research Center, 2018). To increase the number of Latinos represented in STEM careers, scholars suggest schools should focus on the development of Latino adolescents’ STEM identity (e.g., Gándara, 2006). Indeed, students’ STEM identity (i.e., science identity) has been related to commitment to a STEM career (i.e., science career) among a diverse population of college undergraduates and graduate students (Chemers et al., 2013). Guided by an expectancy-value perspective (Eccles, 2009; Eccles & Wigfield, 2002), which suggests that when students’ personal identifications are important to them they place a higher value on the activities that promote these identifications, we examined components of Latino adolescents’ academic identities in relation to their commitment to academic fields such as math and science. Furthermore, given prior research indicates that girls tend to score lower than boys in STEM ability beliefs and in value (Weinburgh, 1995), we further examined to what extent gender contributes to STEM commitment. As such, the first goal of this study was to examine how gender and math identity predicted math commitment. The second goal of the study was to examine how gender and science identity predicted science commitment. Finally, the third goal of the study was to examine how gender and each, math or science identity, predicted overall grades.
Method. Participants were 288 Latino 8th grade adolescents (Mage = 13.69 years, SD = .56; 53% female; 86% U.S.-born) from Central Texas. Adolescents were interviewed by telephone and were asked to report on their background information, including gender (0=male, 1=female), overall grades, academic identity in math and science (Walker, & Syed, 2013), and commitment to math and science careers (Chemers et al., 2011). See Table 1 for descriptives and correlation statistics.
Results. To address each of our three goals, four regression analyses in SPSS were conducted (Table 2). The first regression analysis indicated that gender and science identity were positively related to science career commitment F (2, 277) = 84.44 p < .001. The second regression analysis indicated that gender was not related to math career commitment, however, math identity was positively related to math career commitment F (2, 277) = 108.09, p < .001. The third regression analysis indicated that both gender and science identity positively related to grades F (2, 277) = 29.64, p < .001. The final regression analysis indicated that both gender and math identity was positively related to grades F (2, 277) = 108.09, p < .001. Additional analyses will examine (a) the indirect effects of academic identity on grades via academic commitment and (b) gender as a moderator in these links.
Discussion. Our findings highlight that gender and STEM identity matter for adolescents’ academic adjustment and commitment to pursuing STEM careers. The findings also show that females may have a stronger commitment to science than males. The limitations and implications for Latino youths’ STEM commitment and grades will also be discussed.

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