Which STEM careers are most appealing? Examining high school students’ preferences and motivational beliefs for different STEM career choices

International Journal of STEM Education

Table 2 Gender and race/ethnicity differences in selection of most- and least-preferred careers

Most-preferred career	Black girls		White girls		Black boys		White boys		χ²	p
Most-preferred career	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%
Doctorate-Level Health Care	68	41.70	23	34.80	24	21.80	4	8.50	24.73	.001
Non-Doctorate-Level Health Care	48	29.40	15	22.70	5	4.50	1	2.10	37.18	.005
Engineer	6	3.70	5	7.60	24	21.80	7	14.90	22.19	.001
Welding/Soldering/Machine Operation	3	1.80	7	10.60	8	7.30	13	27.70	23.81	.003
Computer-Related	8	4.90	1	1.50	20	18.20	2	4.30	33.65	< .001

Least-preferred career	Black girls		White girls		Black boys		White boys		χ²	P
Least-preferred career	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%
Welding/Soldering/Machine Operation	40	24.50	10	15.20	10	9.10	4	8.50	14.24	.008
Doctorate-Level Health Care	7	4.30	3	4.50	23	20.90	12	25.50	29.75	.005
Computer-Related	20	12.30	14	21.20	6	5.50	3	6.40	11.64	.015
Engineer	22	13.50	5	7.60	8	7.30	2	4.30	5.41	.180
Electrician	9	5.50	2	3.00	9	8.20	3	6.40	2.05	.562

n = 386 students. Adjusted p values shown as consistent with a correction for a familywise false discovery rate of .05 (Benjamini & Hochberg, 1995). Percentages shown are the percentages of students within a particular group who chose a particular career