# Students’ associations with the STEM acronym and their impact on value beliefs and STEM choices

## TL;DR

Students' understanding of the STEM acronym influences their beliefs about STEM subjects and their decisions to pursue STEM careers.

## Contribution

This study reveals how students' associations with the STEM acronym affect their value beliefs and career choices, with gender differences.

## Key findings

- Students associate mathematics most strongly with STEM, which increases perceived costs and decreases STEM career decisions.
- Associations with physics and computer science increase STEM valence beliefs in boys, while biology increases it in girls.
- These associations mediate students' academic elective intentions and school curriculum choices for STEM.

## Abstract

In recent decades, there have been many campaigns to attract students to STEM study programs and jobs. However, there is little research on whether the target audiences are familiar with the STEM acronym, which specific STEM subject areas they associate with it, and the impact of these associations. We investigated students’ familiarity with the STEM acronym and whether their associations of the STEM acronym with different STEM subject areas—mediated by their value beliefs—affected their academic elective intentions for STEM study programs and activities and their STEM choices of curriculum profiles at school. In a sample of eighth‐grade students (n = 1163; 611 girls; 13.7 years), 72% reported familiarity with the STEM acronym. Students associated mathematics most strongly with the STEM acronym, followed by physics, computer science, chemistry, biology, and engineering. The subject areas students associate with the STEM acronym affected their academic elective intentions for STEM and their STEM choices at school. These relations were mediated by students’ value beliefs and differed for the subject areas associated with the STEM acronym and by gender. The consequences of our findings for tailoring STEM campaigns to ensure their effectiveness and a more diverse and inclusive STEM community are discussed.

The perceived meaning of the acronym STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) affected value beliefs and school career decisions for STEM. Associations of the STEM acronym with mathematics increased cost beliefs, which in turn decreased decisions for STEM careers. Associations with physics and computer science increased valence beliefs in boys, and associations with biology increased valence beliefs in girls, which in turn increased decisions for STEM careers.