Family factors associated with sixth-grade adolescents' math and science career interests

Career Development Quarterly, Sept, 2004 by Sherri L. Turner, Jason C. Steward, Richard T. Lapan

To assess model fit, we applied two goodness-of-fit indices. The chi-square likelihood ratio statistic, which is a measure of the overall fit of

the specified model to the data (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1993), yielded an index of 1.57 ([chi square]/df = 6.27/4, p < .181). If this ratio is less than 2, the model is considered a good fit. Because the chi-square statistic is sensitive to sample size, a second goodness-of-fit test, the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA = [square root of (F 0/d)]; Steiger & Lind, 1980) was used to verify the original results. An RMSEA value of [less than or equal to] .05 indicates a close fit of the data to the model in relation to the degrees of freedom (Browne & Cudeck, 1992). The RMSEA for this sample yielded an index of .04. To control for data dependency, two bootstrap tests were performed using two independently drawn random samples (n = 200) from the full data set. Differences in standard errors of measure for all model paths in the two bootstrap samples ranged from .002 to .004. Covariances, path regression weights, and bootstrap estimates for the variables in this study are found in Table 1. The derived model, named the Family and Perceived Parent Support model, with beta weights, is shown in Figure 1.

Contextual factors (Family Structure, Perceived Father Support, Perceived Mother Support). In our constructed Family and Perceived Parent Support model, there was a significant negative relationship between Family Structure and Career Gender-Typing (-.11, p < .023), indicating that children from intact families had stronger perceptions that math and science careers were appropriate pursuits for persons of their own gender than did children from single-parent families. Family Structure covaried significantly and positively with Perceived Father Support (.19, p < .007) and Perceived Mother Support (.10, p < .05), indicating that children from intact families perceived significantly more reinforcement from their fathers and mothers to pursue mathematics education and math and science careers than did children from single-parent families. The significant positive path from Family Structure to Math Self-Efficacy ([beta] = .18, p < .007) also suggests that the structure of the family itself significantly affects young adolescents' math self-efficacy, with children from two-parent intact families experiencing greater positive family structure effects on their math efficacy than children from single-parent families. The path between Family Structure and Math Outcome Expectations was not significant ([beta] = -.08, p < .179).

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Perceived Mother Support and Perceived Father Support covaried both positively and significantly (.41, p < .007), indicating that there were significant positive interactional effects between Perceived Father Support and Perceived Mother Support as they predicted the endogenous variables in the model. There were also significant positive paths between Perceived Father Support and Math Efficacy ([beta] = .19, p < .036), Perceived Mother Support and Math Efficacy ([beta] = .21, p < .009), and Perceived Mother Support and Math Outcome Expectations ([beta] = .23, p < .010). The significance of these covariances and the magnitude of the paths between each of these sets of variables suggest that there is both direct and indirect correspondence between children's math efficacy and outcome expectations and their perceptions of parental support for pursuing both mathematics education and math and science careers. The path between Perceived Father Support and Math Outcome Expectations was not significant ([beta] = -.02, p < .753).