Data indicate that men were more likely than women to report that they initially became interested in STEM on their own. In support of earlier research, the results indicate that the majority of respondents reported their first interest in STEM occurred prior to Middle School. When asked about who supported them beyond the initial spark, men were also more likely than women to report that they were the main source of support for maintaining interest. In terms of maintaining interest over time, passion for the field and career interest were commonly reported as supports.
We also asked individuals to indicate the most significant experience – positive or negative – they had related to STEM. After coding the open-ended item regarding the nature of the event, the top five responses included classes respondents had at school, specific class content, participation in a research project, class instructional styles, and participation or knowledge of jobs in STEM. When these responses are further broken down by the effect they had on respondent persistence in STEM, most of these experiences had a positive effect, but there were significant proportions of respondents who indicated that classes, and particularly “poor teaching” had negative or strongly negative effects.
While these findings support extant research, they also allow us to dig deeper into how people maintain interest in STEM through degree and into careers. These findings are unique given the depth of information we collected on the development and maintenance of STEM interest and the inclusion of a significant portion of respondents (54%) from ‘outside’ of STEM to provide a form of comparison.