Career Identity and Profiles of Value Beliefs in Four Academic Domains in High School

Abstract

This project analyzed five waves of longitudinal survey data from all grades in a high school (N = 2,681), including academic value beliefs in English, math, science, and social studies in addition to career identity commitment and career identity exploration. The first aim of the study was to determine the extent to which students experience declines in academic value beliefs and whether these trends differ based on gender, Racial/Ethnic identification, and parental educational attainment. This aim was addressed using both a variable-centered method (Latent Curve Analysis; LCA) and an exploratory person-centered method (Growth Mixture Modeling; GMM). The second aim was to assess the extent to which students specialize in value for one specific academic domain, and whether greater specialization is positively associated with career identity development. This question was addressed by modeling the development of career identity and exploration with LCA and linking these variables with indicators of academic specialization.

On average across students, value beliefs in math, value beliefs in science, and career commitment decreased during students’ time in high school. However, value beliefs in English and social studies increased, and career exploration remained stable. Greater career commitment was associated with higher initial value for science and less decline in math and science value. In demographic group differences, women reported higher initial levels of English value while men expressed higher initial levels of math value. Lower parental educational attainment was associated with lower initial levels of value in math, science, and social studies, greater declines in value beliefs in all subjects, and greater initial career commitment. Students with higher personal educational aspirations showed higher initial levels of value for math and science and experienced less decline in science value. Black/African American students indicated lower initial value beliefs in science and greater initial career commitment than other Racial/Ethnic groups, while Asian/Asian American students expressed the highest initial value for math and science of any group.

The GMM analysis of value beliefs found six classes: a “High stable” class (75%), a “Humanities preference” class (8%), a “STEM preference” class (6%), a “STEM decline” class (4%), an “Increasing” class (4%), and a “Declining” class (3%). Women were overrepresented in the “STEM decline” class and “Humanities preference” class but underrepresented in the “STEM preference” class. Students with the lowest parental educational attainment and Black/African American students were underrepresented in the “High stable” class, while students with highest parental educational attainment and White/Caucasian students were overrepresented in that class. Students in the three classes with more specialized value patterns reported greater initial levels of and less decline in career commitment.

The results of this analysis indicate that high-performing schools wishing to improve equity in subject area value beliefs may consider focusing on students with lower parental educational attainment in relation to all content areas, Black/African American students in science, women in math, and men in English; however, no gender differences were evident in science. To promote career identity commitment, the positive relationships between this variable and value for math, value for science, more specialized value belief profiles, Black/African American identification, and lower parental educational attainment could be further investigated.