Modeling STEM Career Orientation Amongst Bilingual Students: A Multilevel Structural Equation Approach

This study investigates how parental involvement and teacher support are associated with high-school bilingual students’ self-efficacy, STEM activity engagement, and STEM college learning and career orientation. Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling (MSEM) was performed to simultaneously examine direct, indirect, and moderated relationships across student and teacher levels. Data were drawn from survey responses of 1,098 bilingual students nested within 115 classroom teachers across nine high schools. Results revealed that at the student level, both parental involvement and teacher support positively predicted students’ self-efficacy and STEM engagement, which in turn positively associated with their orientation towards STEM college learning and careers. Teacher support also moderated the relationship between STEM activity engagement and STEM orientation, strengthening the pathway for students who perceived higher levels of support. At the teacher level, teacher support—rather than parental involvement—was positively associated with STEM engagement. Mediation analyses also showed that self-efficacy and STEM engagement jointly mediated several pathways linking contextual supports to career orientation, particularly at the student level. These findings underscore the importance of integrated home and school support in shaping bilingual students’ STEM pathways. The implications for STEM instruction for bilingual students and multilevel research are discussed.