This observational analysis finds educational expectations predict college applications and STEM majors in students with and without disabilities, indicating the role of social cognitive career theory.
This study investigated the predictive relationships between high school STEM education and college application and STEM major choice for students with disabilities (SWD) compared with students without disabilities (SWOD). Social cognitive career theory was utilized to elucidate the predictive factors associated with career development. The sample was extracted from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, which included 1,361 SWD and 5,962 SWOD. The findings indicate that educational expectations consistently predicted college application and STEM major choices for SWD as well as for SWOD. Demographic variables such as race and socioeconomic status were not predictive, except for gender, which was shown to influence both SWD’s and SWOD’s decisions regarding whether to pursue a STEM major. Several suggestions to facilitate STEM education for SWD are presented.
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Jia et al. (2025) studied this question.
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