The Influence Parent Socialization and School Environment has on African-American Adolescent Males’ Mathematics Self-Efficacy and Engineering Career Trajectory

Abstract

This Full Paper in the Research Category presents a study aimed at examining the moderating/mediating role of parental academic socialization messages and school resources on African-American males’ engineering career trajectory and self-efficacy beliefs. With men being overrepresented in engineering fields, the dramatically lower representation of African-American men (AFAM) looks especially conspicuous. The underrepresentation is a concern for diversity and socio-economic status of the AFAM community and the roots need to be understood. Classical theories explain how career choice is influenced by motivation and socialization, so examining how mathematics self-efficacy and socialization combine to inform career choice of AFAM male adolescents can help to understand their participation in the pipeline to engineering jobs. This study uses data from the nationally represented Educational Longitudinal Study analyzed using multi-level logistic and longitudinal models. Findings suggest that parents who expect school success, believe people can learn to be good at math, and check homework are related to increased odds that their child will be on an engineering career trajectory. Parents who more frequently helped with their child’s homework decreased their child’s odds of being on an engineering career trajectory. This study contributes to existing literature on increasing the engineering pipeline for underrepresented minorities.