– Student interest in science was most strongly associated with career aspirations.
– Parental values and expectations explained student interest, self-concept, achievement, and career aspirations.
– There were strong associations of parental expectations with a child’s career aspirations, moderate to strong associations with student motivation, and a moderate association with a student’s science achievement.
– Boys had a slightly higher interest in science and a higher self-concept than girls. Correspondingly, girls did not pursue careers in scientific fields as often as boys did.
– There was a significant difference between the self-concept of boys and girls in science only. When parents valued science as important in general, boys showed a significantly higher self-concept than girls did.
– Parental expectations were more strongly related to the interest, self-concept, and achievement of boys than it was to that of girls. In contrast, the high expectations of parents predicted career
aspirations in science equally well for boys and girls.
– In general, parents had higher expectations of their daughters than they did of their sons.
– With respect to the motivation of both boys and girls, parental expectations for a child’s career aspirations in science are more important than parental values are.