Utility-value intervention with parents increases students’ STEM preparation and career pursuit
Open accessAbstract
Significance: The need for students trained in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) jobs is growing rapidly in the United States, yet students do not enroll in the necessary courses to prepare for STEM careers. In a randomized controlled trial, parents in the utility–value intervention group received materials detailing the importance of STEM for their adolescents in high school. The intervention increased mathematics and science ACT scores and course-taking in high school. This greater high-school STEM preparation was associated, 5 y later, with increased STEM career pursuit. These findings suggest that educational policies should promote the personal relevance of high-school mathematics and science courses and involve parents in helping to promote STEM preparation and career pursuit.
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Interventions that aim to increase the value that parents place on education have been shown to increase their children's educational attainment.
“Interventions that aim to increase the value that parents place on education have been shown to increase their children's educational attainment (Harackiewicz et al., 2012;Rozek, Svoboda, Harackiewicz, Hulleman, & Hyde, 2017)”
From Tackling Educational Inequalities with Social Psychology: Identities, Contexts, and Interventions (2021) · cites this paper as Rozek, Svoboda, Harackiewicz, Hulleman, & Hyde, 2017
The Current Study section (page unavailable) describes an intervention that encouraged parents to communicate the value of mathematics and science; it also reports that changes in parents’ and students’ STEM attitudes mediated increased high-school STEM course-taking. The Direct Intervention Effects section (page unavailable) reports higher mathematics and science ACT scores. These findings support improved STEM outcomes, but the claim broadens them to education and educational attainment generally. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- Authors
- Rozek, C. S., Svoboda, R. C., Harackiewicz, J. M., Hulleman, C. S., & Hyde, J. S.
- Affiliations
- University of Chicago (US)
- Northwestern University (US)
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- University of Virginia (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hyde, Janet S.
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2017-01-17
- Volume
- 114
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 909-914
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC5293025
- OpenAlex
- W2573228117
- Cited by
- 218
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 72 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 72.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (0814750)
- DoED | Institute of Education Sciences (R305B090009, R305B140042)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Career Development and Diversity
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Education, Achievement, and Giftedness
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Science Education and Perceptions
- Keywords
- parental intervention, utility value intervention, high school students, mathematics achievement, science achievement, ACT scores, STEM attitudes, long-term effects, STEM education
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Aptitude Tests, Career Choice, Educational Status, Engineering, Female, Humans, Male, Mathematics, Models, Theoretical, Motivation, Parents, Science, Students, Technology, Young Adult
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