The relations between growth mindset, motivational beliefs, and career interest in math intensive fields in informal STEM youth programs

Emine Ozturk*, Mengya Zhao, Angelina Joy, Christina S. Marlow, Fidelia Law, Ashley R. Deutsch, Channing J. Mathews, Adam J. Hoffman, Luke McGuire, Mark Winterbottom, Frances Balkwill, Karen Burns, Laurence Butler, Marc Drews, Grace Fields, Hannah Smith, Adam Rutland, Adam Hartstone-Rose, Kelly Lynn Mulvey

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

Abstract

Past research has shown that growth mindset and motivational beliefs have an important role in math and science career interest in adolescence. Drawing on situated expectancy-value theory (SEVT), this study extends these findings by investigating the role of parental motivational beliefs (e.g., expectancy beliefs, utility values) and parent growth mindset in math on adolescent career interest in math-intensive fields (e.g., mathematics, computer science, statistics, and engineering; MCSE) through adolescent motivational beliefs in math. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized model using data from 290 adolescents (201 girls, 69.3%; Mage = 15.20), who participate in informal STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) youth programs, and their parents (162 parents, 87.7% female) in the United Kingdom and the United States. As hypothesized, adolescent expectancy beliefs, utility values, and growth mindset in math had a significant direct effect on MCSE career interest. Further, there was a significant indirect effect of parental expectancy beliefs in math on MCSE career interest through adolescents’ expectancy beliefs. Similarly, there was a significant indirect effect from parental utility values in math to MCSE career interest through adolescents’ utility values. The findings suggest that parents’ math motivational beliefs play a critical role in adolescent math motivational beliefs and their career interest in math-intensive fields.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere0294276
JournalPLoS ONE
Volume19
Issue number4 April
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Ozturk et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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