Predicting Engineering Major Status From Mathematics Achievement and Interest Congruence

This study proposed that precollege students’ standardized mathematics achievement score and the congruence between their occupational interests and engineering tasks would predict their second-year retention in college and the stability of their major. Binary response models were used to predict second-year major status (i.e., continue, transfer major, or dropout). High mathematics achievement was predictive of retention on campus and within the engineering major. Interest congruence predicted likelihood of staying on campus. A trend was also detected (p < .07) between the Mathematics Achievement · Interest Congruence interaction effect. These findings reinforce the importance of examining both achievement and interest congruence factors when understanding the retention of engineering majors. Future research needs to replicate and extend this model to other majors and institutions to more fully understand the major choice and college retention processes.

[1]  Dale J. Prediger.  Is Interest Profile Level Relevant to Career Counseling , 1998 .

[2]  Arnold R. Spokane.  A review of research on person-environment congruence in Holland's theory of careers , 1985 .

[3]  Steven D. Brown,et al.  Comparison of Three Theoretically Derived Variables in Predicting Career and Academic Behavior: Self-Efficacy, Interest Congruence, and Consequence Thinking. , 1987 .

[4]  Timothy J. Pantages,et al.  Studies of College Attrition: 1950––1975 , 1978 .

[5]  Ruth E. Fassinger,et al.  Causal models of career choice in two samples of college women. , 1990 .

[6]  Howard E. A. Tinsley.  The Congruence Myth: An Analysis of the Efficacy of the Person-Environment Fit Model. , 2000 .

[7]  Timothy R. Vansickle,et al.  Locating occupations on Holland's hexagon: Beyond RIASEC , 1992 .

[8]  Cynthia J. Atman,et al.  Characteristics of Freshman Engineering Students: Models for Determining Student Attrition in Engineering , 1997 .

[9]  J. Noble,et al.  Factors Affecting Student Persistence: A Longitudinal Study. , 1992 .

[10]  Dale J. Prediger,et al.  Integrating Vocational Interest Inventory Results and Expressed Choices. , 1984 .

[11]  Elaine Seymour,et al.  The loss of women from science, mathematics, and engineering undergraduate majors: An explanatory account , 1995 .

[12]  Steven E. Ekeberg,et al.  The Relation between Interest Congruence and Satisfaction: A Metaanalysis , 1993 .

[13]  T. Krieshok,et al.  Investigative versus realistic Holland types and adjustment in theoretical engineering majors. , 1981 .

[14]  T. Tracey.  Interest Traitedness as a Moderator of Interest-Occupation Congruence. , 2003 .

[15]  Terence J. G. Tracey,et al.  Prediger's dimensional representation of Holland's RIASEC circumplex. , 1993 .

[16]  Margaret M. Nauta,et al.  Women's Career Development: Can Theoretically Derived Variables Predict Persistence in Engineering Majors?. , 1997 .

[17]  J. L. Holland,et al.  Making vocational choices : a theory of vocational personalities and work environments , 1984 .

[18]  Amy M. Hightower,et al.  Science and Engineering Indicators , 1993 .

[19]  Nancy E. Betz,et al.  Gender, Ethnicity, and Social Cognitive Factors Predicting the Academic Achievement of Students in Engineering. , 1992 .

[20]  C. Dunn,et al.  Addressing the Restrictive Career Maturity Patterns of Minority Youth: A Program Evaluation. , 1989 .

[21]  L. Subich,et al.  Congruence Revisited: Do 11 Indices Differentially Predict Job Satisfaction and Is the Relation Moderated by Person and Situation Variables? , 1998 .

[22]  Susan E. Cross,et al.  Training the Scientists and Engineers of Tomorrow: A Person‐Situation Approach1 , 2001 .

[23]  M. Morningstar,et al.  Persistence of Occupational Choice and Personality Congruence. , 1970 .

[24]  E. I. Meir.  Elaboration of the Relation Between Interest Congruence and Satisfaction , 1995 .

[25]  R. Mathiasen.  Predicting college academic achievement: A research review. , 1984 .

[26]  Dale J. Prediger.  Dimensions Underlying Holland's Hexagon: Missing Link between Interests and Occupations?. , 1982 .

[27]  E. I. Meir,et al.  Person–Environment Congruence and Holland's Theory: A Review and Reconsideration , 2000 .

[28]  James Levin,et al.  Identification of Student Characteristics That Predict Persistence and Success in an Engineering College at the End of the Sophomore Year: Informing the Practice of Academic Advising. , 1990 .

[29]  E. I. Meir,et al.  Meta-analysis of the relationship between congruence and well-being measures , 1987 .

[30]  Nancy E. Betz,et al.  What stops women and minorities from choosing and completing majors in science and engineering , 1997 .

[31]  G. Hackett.  Role of Mathematics Self-Efficacy in the Choice of Math- Related Majors of College Women and Men: A Path Analysis , 1985 .

[32]  Interest and persistence. , 1970 .

[33]  John M. Braxton.  Theory Elaboration and Research and Development: Toward a Fuller Understanding of College Student Retention , 1999 .

[34]  Dale J. Prediger,et al.  Extending Holland's Hexagon: Procedures, Counseling Applications, and Research , 1993 .

[35]  Jeffrey H. Kahn,et al.  A multiple-groups analysis of predictors of higher level career aspirations among women in mathematics, science, and engineering majors , 1998 .

[36]  Vincent Tinto.  Dropout from Higher Education: A Theoretical Synthesis of Recent Research , 1975 .

[37]  R. Weitzman.  THE PREDICTION OF COLLEGE ACHIEVEMENT BY THE SCHOLASTIC APTITUDE TEST AND THE HIGH SCHOOL RECORD , 1982 .

[38]  S. Schwartz,et al.  Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Student Attrition , 1987 .

[39]  Steven D. Brown,et al.  Toward a Unifying Social Cognitive Theory of Career and Academic Interest, Choice, and Performance , 1994 .

[40]  Ronald G. Taylor,et al.  Interest Change as a Function of Persistence and Transfer From an Engineering Major. , 1972 .

[41]  J. L. Holland,et al.  Making Vocational Choices: A Theory of Careers , 1973 .

[42]  N. Friedland,et al.  Congruence and Differentiation as Predictors of Workers' Occupational Stability and Job Performance , 1994 .