Feeling joy × feeling competent: Predicting math-related occupational aspirations from math grades, gender, and parents’ occupational background via motivational beliefs.

Abstract

Educational science has consistently examined what drives adolescents to aspire to occupations in math-related fields-and which factors, such as gender stereotypes, may drive them away. In this study, we utilized a large longitudinal data set (N = 1,092) to test whether past grades, gender, and the math level of mothers' and fathers' occupations predicted the math-relatedness of German adolescents' occupational aspirations 1 year later in 10th grade controlling for mathematical competence, intelligence, and socioeconomic status, among other factors. First, we examined whether motivational beliefs-math intrinsic value and math ability self-concept-mediated these relationships. Second, we used a latent interaction approach to test whether intrinsic value and ability self-concept interacted to predict the math-relatedness of aspirations, an important yet understudied prediction of expectancy-value theories. The intrinsic value of math, but not ability self-concept fully mediated the effect of math grade on aspirations. Gender differences could partly be explained via intrinsic value, but a substantial effect remained. The math level of mothers', but not fathers' occupations was positively associated with the math-relatedness of their children's aspirations, but this effect was not mediated by motivational beliefs. Exploratory analyses examined these relations separately for boys and girls. Regarding our second aim, there was a significant interaction showing that intrinsic value only predicted the math-relatedness of aspirations among students with a high-ability self-concept. This latter finding points to the importance of continuing to investigate not only main effects but also interaction effects within the framework of the situated expectancy-value theory. Educational Impact and Implications StatementOur study showed that students with better math grades, boys, and those whose mothers' occupations require a high level of math aspire to occupations that are more related to math independent of their actual math competencies, social background, intelligence, and further variables. We found that this was partly due to the fact that students with better grades and boys enjoyed math more. In turn, those students who simultaneously enjoy math and also feel highly competent in it aspire to occupations that are the most related to math. This means that only enjoying math (without feeling competent in it)-or vice versa-is not enough for a student to pursue a career in science, technology, engineering, or math.