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Identity is an emerging lens to view entry and persistence in the STEM fields. less is known about engineering identity specifically, yet examining the factors that contribute to shaping it could increase our understanding of gender disparities in this field. Building from theoretical and empirical work on identity in STEM fields, this study considers interest and self-efficacy as likely contributors to young women and men's engineering identity, and also considers the role of attainment value. Furthermore, this study distinguishes between the potential influence on engineering identity of recognition of domain experts, specifically teachers, from the influence of support from family and friends. The study examines two research questions. First, do self-efficacy, interest, attainment value, recognition by teachers, and support from family and friends predict engineering identity of high school engineering students? Second, do these factors contribute to explaining the gender gap in engineering identity? Survey data was collected from 459 students enrolled in a high school engineering course. Engineering identity was predicted using regression analyses. Results indicated that with the exception of recognition, all factors significantly predicted engineering identity. Additionally, while most of the gender gap in identity could be explained by gender differences in interest and self-efficacy, attainment value and support also contributed to explaining gender differences. The implications of these results for future research on identity are discussed.
Buontempo et al. (Sun,) studied this question.