- The importance of enjoyment, self-concept, and achievement in explaining disparities in science career aspirations relative to White males varies according to the female subgroup considered, such that no singular story applies to females across different racial/ethnic backgrounds.
- For math, White and Hispanic females remain approximately half as likely as White males to aspire to a math occupation regardless of all indicators considered.
- Black and Hispanic adolescent boys have generally comparable aspirations toward future careers in science and math as their White male peers, despite notably large differences in achievement.
- Black male youth are the only subgroup that shows comparable aspirations to White males in both subjects before accounting for other factors.
- Other than Black males, there distinct patterns by subject, so that patterns of equity are different for science career aspirations than they are for math. For example, Hispanic males’ aspirations toward a future math career do not differ significantly from those of White males, whereas their lower relative science aspirations can be explained by social background differences.
- Comparing White male aspirations to different female subgroups, the authors are able to explain disparities in science career aspirations by taking into account attitudes and achievement, factors known to influence choice of college major and occupation much later in life.
- Once differences in achievement are held constant, Black females are as likely as White males to aspire toward a science career. Adjusting for achievement similarly results in comparable science aspirations for Hispanic females. Yet in contrast to the patterns observed for Black females, accounting for enjoyment and self-concept also results in predicted levels of science aspirations for Hispanic females that are comparable to White males.
- Adjusting for differences in science enjoyment led to comparable aspirations between White females and their male peers.
- The association of enjoyment with aspirations in science (as well as math) is stronger than they observe for respective levels of self-concept, suggesting that enjoyment is a crucial factor in the development of future interests.
- Well more than half of the students from all groups report strongly enjoying science in the fourth grade. Among eighth-grade students, this proportion decreases across the board- yet more so for female adolescents than for male adolescents. While there are no differences between groups in science enjoyment in the fourth grade, there are significant differences in the eighth grade, such that significantly lower proportions of females from all racial/ethnic backgrounds report strongly enjoying science in comparison to White males.
- Low levels of academic preparation may function early to deter minority females, but perhaps function much later to impede the STEM trajectories of minority males.