Gendered Pathways to Career Exploration and Academic Persistence Among STEM Undergraduates in South Korea

Gender disparities in STEM education continue to shape students’ academic persistence and career development. Identifying how psychological and contextual factors operate differently for male and female students is essential for understanding these disparities and designing targeted interventions. This study examines gender differences in the structural pathways linking contextual supports, career barriers, engineering self-efficacy, major motivation, career exploration behaviors, and academic persistence intentions among STEM undergraduates in South Korea. Using data from 2393 students collected through a national institutional project, multi-group structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to compare path coefficients between male and female students. The results showed that contextual supports significantly enhanced engineering self-efficacy, which in turn predicted higher major motivation and stronger academic persistence intentions across both groups. However, gender-specific differences emerged. Major motivation had a stronger positive effect on persistence among male students, whereas career exploration behaviors were negatively associated with persistence intentions only among female students. In addition, career barriers exerted a stronger negative total effect on persistence among female students. These findings suggest that gender differences in STEM are reflected not only in overall levels but also in the structural mechanisms linking key variables. Practically, supporting female students in managing perceived barriers and reframing career exploration as an adaptive process may help strengthen their academic persistence.