A Meta-Analysis of Psychosocial Interventions to Improve Students’ STEM Motivation.

With global demand for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) skills increasing, education systems seek to increase student motivation in STEM domains. Psychosocial interventions targeting students’ motivational processes represent a promising approach. This meta-analysis synthesized 289 effect sizes across 38 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to examine the impact of psychosocial interventions on STEM motivation. Results indicated a small-to-moderate positive overall effect (g = 0.20). Intervention type did not significantly moderate effects, although effect sizes were higher for personal values (g = 0.33), task value (g = 0.18), and framing interventions (g = 0.18). Motivational construct significantly moderated intervention outcomes with effects observed for competence beliefs (g = 0.36), mindset (g = 0.27), and utility value (g = 0.19), while smaller for interest (g = 0.11), and not significant for cost (g = 0.08, p = 0.088) and goals (g = -0.01, p = 0.85). Gender composition significantly moderated intervention effects with greater benefits observed in samples with higher proportions of female students. No significant moderation effects were observed for race, age, educational level, delivery format, country, publication year, peer-review status, or study quality. Qualitative evidence suggested that intervention effects may vary across sociocultural groups, with some indication of stronger responsiveness among first-generation (FG) students and more variable, framing-dependent effects among underrepresented minority (URM) students. These findings imply that psychosocial interventions can enhance STEM motivation when they target competence beliefs, mindset, and utility-value mechanisms, with particularly potential to support groups historically underrepresented in STEM.