Who Aspires to a Science Career? A comparison of survey responses from primary and secondary school students

Figures & data

Table 1. Characteristics of students with strong science aspirations—Year 6

	Coefficient	SE	Odds multiplier
Intercept (constant)	−2.53	0.09	N/A
Gender (female)	−0.57	0.08	0.57
Ethnicity—Asian	1.003	0.12	2.73
Ethnicity—Black	0.363	0.15	1.44
Ethnicity—Other	0.415	0.14	1.51
Cultural capital—low	−0.636	0.13	0.53
Cultural capital—high	0.239	0.11	1.27
Cultural capital—very high	0.71	0.10	2.03

Table 2. Characteristics of students with strong science aspirations—Year 9

	Coefficient	SE	Odds multiplier
Intercept (constant)	−2.85	0.13	N/A
Gender (female)	−0.341	0.12	0.71
Ethnicity—Asian	0.668	0.15	1.95
Ethnicity—Black	0.415	0.21	1.51
Ethnicity—Other	0.652	0.18	1.92
Cultural capital—very high	0.450	0.13	1.57
Cultural capital—low	−0.407	0.15	0.67
Cultural capital—very low	−1.484	0.51	0.23
Family member whose job uses science	0.768	0.12	2.16
Science Set—top	0.681	0.12	1.98

Table 3. Effects of structural and latent variables on aspirations in science (Year 6 and Year 9)

Effect	Year 9 coefficient (Y6)	Year 9 SE (Y6)	Year 9 effect size (Y6)
Intercept	−5.770 (13.944)	0.321 (0.072)
Gender (female)	−0.438 (−0.651)	0.110 (0.074)	−0.09 (−0.13)
Ethnicity—Indian	N/A (0.602)	N/A (0.197)	N/A (0.12)
Ethnicity—Pakistani	N/A (0.663)	N/A (0.254)	N/A (0.13)
Ethnicity—Bangladeshi	N/A (0.833)	N/A (0.283)	N/A (0.16)
Ethnicity—‘Other’ South Asian	N/A (1.253)	N/A (0.424)	N/A (0.24)
Ethnicity—Chinese	1.233 (1.271)	0.409 (0.424)	0.24 (0.25)
Ethnicity—Black Caribbean	N/A (−0.665)	N/A (0.284)	N/A (−0.13)
Ethnicity—Mixed, Black & White	N/A (−0.447)	N/A (0.203)	N/A (−0.09)
Ethnicity—Mixed, Asian & White	N/A (0.779)	N/A (0.340)	N/A (0.15)
Cultural capital—very low	0.647 (N/A)	0.258 (N/A)	0.13 (N/A)
Cultural capital—low	N/A (−0.317)	N/A (0.092)	N/A (−0.06)
Cultural capital—very high	N/A (0.298)	N/A (0.098)	N/A (0.06)
Family member using science in job	0.757 (N/A)	0.118 (N/A)	0.15 (N/A)
Science set—top	0.510 (N/A)	0.114 (N/A)	0.10 (N/A)
Parental attitudes to science	0.519 (0.668)	0.026 (0.021)	0.35 (0.44)
Attitudes towards school science	0.320 (0.343)	0.015 (0.009)	0.48 (0.53)
Self-concept in science	0.161 (0.134)	0.013 (0.009)	0.24 (0.20)
Participation in science-related activities	0.159 (N/A)	0.013 (N/A)	0.21 (N/A)

Note: Year 6 coefficients, standard errors and effect sizes are shown in brackets. ‘N/A’ is used to indicate when a variable did not form part of a particular model (Year 6 or Year 9).

Table 4. Variables related to Year 9 aspirations in science, using matched data

Effect	Coefficient	SE	Effect size
Intercept	−6.806	0.685
Gender (female)	−0.445	0.198	−0.09
Ethnicity—Other Asian	1.815	0.790	0.38
Cultural capital—low	0.562	0.234	0.12
Cultural capital—high	0.651	0.249	0.14
Science set—top	0.448	0.205	0.09
Family member whose job uses science	0.824	0.229	0.17
Year 6 aspirations in science	0.110	0.020	0.16
Parental attitudes to science (Year 9)	0.560	0.058	0.35
Attitudes towards school science (Year 9)	0.348	0.031	0.51
Self-concept in science (Year 9)	0.128	0.027	0.19
Participation in science-related activities (Year 9)	0.117	0.027	0.15

Table

Component	Y6 Cronbach's alpha	Y9 Cronbach's alpha
Aspirations in science (5 items) (I would like to: study more science in the future, become a scientist, have a job that uses science, work in science; I think I could be a good scientist one day)	.899	.919
Engineering-related aspirations (2 items) (I would like to: work in engineering, be an inventor)	.663	.665
Attitudes towards school science (7 items) (Sample items: We learn interesting things in science lessons; Science lessons are exciting; Studying science is useful for getting a good job in the future)	.863	.872
Self-concept in science (7 items) (Sample items: I do well in science; I find science difficult; I learn things quickly in my science lessons)	.837	.873
Parental attitudes to science (3 items) (My parents: think science is interesting; would be happy if I became a scientist when I grow up; think it is important for me to learn science)	.691	.782
Participation in science-related activities (5 items) (Sample items: Outside of school, how often do you: Read a book or magazine about science? Visit web sites about science? Watch a TV programme about science or nature?)	.704	.776
Parental ambition/expectations (4 items)^a	.646	.732
Parental involvement (3 items)^a	.566	.694
Peer orientation to school (4 items)^a	.684	.771
Peer attitudes to science (2 items)^a	.804	.813
Positive images of scientists (5 items)^a	.717	.738
Stereotypical images of scientists (3 items)^a	.618	.735

^aA complete copy of the survey is available with the authors.