Supporting First-Year College Women in Math, Science, and Related Majors: A Career Development Intervention

Abstract

Nationally, college women in the early 1990s were dropping out of science, math and engineering majors at a rate of 70% compared to a male dropout rate of 61%. At elite schools, 54% of women left those majors compared to 39% of the men (Seymour & Hewitt, 1997.) The current study explored whether women students with interests in majoring in math and science who were enrolled in a first-year intervention course with a career development emphasis would score higher on post-test measures of career aspirations, attitudes toward multiple role planning, coping with barriers efficacy, and career self-efficacy than women with interests in majoring in math and science who were in a no-treatment control group. Also explored was whether the women would be more likely to persist in their intended major and career choices than women with similar interests who were in a no-treatment control group. Social cognitive career theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994, 1996) provided a theoretical framework for the intervention.

The participants in the treatment group (n = 11) did not exhibit significantly different changes from pretest to posttest than the control group (n = 11). Participants completed the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale-Short Form (Betz, Klein, & Taylor, 1996), the Career Aspiration Scale (O'Brien, 1992), the Coping with Barriers Scale (Luzzo & McWhirter, 2001), and the Attitudes Toward Multiple Role Planning Scales (Weitzman & Fitzgerald, 1996). Course evaluation feedback indicated satisfaction with the course. Limitations to the study, recommendations for further study, and implications for counselors are described. Researchers are encouraged to continue to explore possible moderating and mediating variables in order to investigate the complexities of retaining college women in math and science-related majors.