Role of mathematics self-efficacy in the choice of math-related majors of college women and men: A path analysis.

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to test the hypothesis that mathematicsrelated self-efficacy mediates the effects of gender and mathematical preparation and achievement on math relatedness of college major choice. The responses of 117 undergraduates to a series of inventories and questionnaires yielded seven variables descriptive of the math-related career choice process; a causal model of the interrelationships of these variables was constructed from predictions based on self-efficacy theory. A path analysis and consequent refinement of the model resulted in a final path model that was congruent with a self-efficacy approach to women's career development. Unexpected results and implications of the model are discussed. The increasing realization on the part of counseling psychologists that our knowledge of women's vocational behavior and career development is inadequate (Fitzgerald & Crites, 1980; Osipow, 1983; Vetter, 1978) has been accompanied by a dramatic increase in the empirical literature devoted to this topic. Still missing, however, is a synthesizing framework, a relevant theoretical conceptualization of women's career development which is capable of integrating existing knowledge and guiding future research and intervention efforts. In an attempt to fill this conceptual void, Hackett and Betz (1981) have outlined a self-efficacy approach to women's career development. This approach stresses the