Pre-college STEM camps as developmental context: Mediational relations between gender, career decidedness, socioemotional development, and engagement

Abstract

One potential mechanism to mitigate the underrepresentation of females within STEM is the use of Out-of-School-Time programs and camps with supportive staff, instructors, and parallel orientation towards socioemotional development. This study examines factors which may mediate the relation between gender and STEM career aspiration within a pre-collegiate week-long STEM camp experience among a sample of 365 adolescent campers. Campers were an average of 15.58 years old, primarily white (69.8%), and male (51.8%). The results of the mediational structural equation model (SEM) suggested socioemotional development did not mediate the relation between gender and career decidedness, and there was no statistical difference between male and female STEM career decidedness. The lack of effect could be a result of the systematic and ongoing emphasis towards the development of STEM skills and aspiration within minority and underrepresented groups, specifically females.