Abstract:

In today's high-tech society, one important challenge is to encourage adolescents to choose science and engineering (STEM) fields of study. Ensuring accessibility of STEM disciplines at all levels of education is an important priority for the education system due to the need to provide a basis for choosing these specializations. One of the characteristics of STEM disciplines is the traditional perception of STEM disciplines as more suitable for boys than for girls.
Our study examines gender stereotypes among adolescents in relation to their preferences in choosing STEM as a future career. Adolescents participated in the test twice: the first cut-off was conducted in grades 8 and 10 and the second in grades 9 and 11. The choice of these time points is related to the fact that at the end of secondary school students are in the process of professional self-determination, which ends in high school, where students are engaged in preparation for entering specific universities. A total of 331 adolescents participated in the study, with a mean age of 15.7 (standard deviation=1.7; 50.7% girls). The adolescents were tested on their intelligence, spatial abilities and completed questionnaires that assessed their motivation to learn and their self-assessment of their abilities in the various disciplines. Furthermore, participants completed a questionnaire assessing gender stereotypes and STEM-related beliefs and answered a question about their preferred future profession.

The study assessed the dynamics of boys' and girls' choice of STEM destinations, taking into account the transition to one grade older. For this purpose, groups of schoolchildren were identified, according to professional self-determination in STEM and non-STEM in two cross-sections. In second section, about 38% of schoolchildren change their preferences both in STEM and non-STEM. Among the factors that determine the changes in career direction were intrinsic motivation towards learning and science, as well as the importance of math for a future career. In addition, girls were more likely to move into the non-STEM preference group. Changes in the presence of gender stereotypes and STEM-related beliefs in both sexes were assessed. In the transition to one grade older, math became subjectively more difficult for boys (p<0.03; Cohen's d = 0.17), they also showed a tendency to have stereotypes associated with STEM (p<0.05; Cohen's d = 0.15). In girls, the attitude about the importance of math for their future career increased (p<0.01; Cohen's d = 0.27), also as the interest of friends in math (p<0.01; Cohen's d = 0.20). At the same time, girls changed their attitude towards gender stereotypes in STEM toward it reduction (p<0.02; Cohen's d = 0.18).

Thus, the change in preferences of future career among adolescents is associated with different indicators, and gender stereotypes and beliefs associated with STEM are undergoing changes. For boys, math became more complex for learning, while for girls, the attitudes toward math for them and their friends changed. Given the greater number of girls who transitioned to non-STEM from STEM, these results point to significant differences in individual pathways of STEM discipline preference, which need to be examined in further study.

Acknowledgement:
This research was funded by Russian Foundation For Basic Research, grant number 19-29-14127

Keywords:

STEM, adolescence, gender stereotypes, career preferences.