The Role of Motivation and Parental Encouragement in Promoting Students’ Career Interest in STEM

Abstract In recent years, demand for workers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers has been increasing globally. However, the percentage of those graduating from STEM subjects ranges from 41% (China) to 20% (US and Indonesia), and only 32% of STEM graduates in Indonesia are women. An interest in a STEM career starts with motivation, but little is known about motivation in the high school context. To understand the influence of motivation on career interest in STEM, high school pupils ( n = 1153) were surveyed across 23 schools in Indonesia. The survey also asked about parental encouragement for pupils to select their own careers. A partial least squares (PLS) analysis was used to explore the influence of motivation and parental encouragement on career interest in STEM. The study found that extrinsic and intrinsic motivation influenced career interest in STEM; for both young women and men. Parental encouragement moderated the relationship between intrinsic motivation and career interest for both; but did not influence the relationship between extrinsic motivation and career interest. We make recommendations for teaching resources and approaches to stimulate and sustain students’ interest in STEM study in order to increase the numbers selecting a STEM career.