Predicting the academic engagement of women and students at historically black universities: A social cognitive approach

Abstract

We examined the utility of social cognitive career theory (SCCT) in predicting the academic persistence goals of (a) women versus men and of (b) students at historically Black versus predominantly White universities. Participants (487 students enrolled in introductory engineering courses at three universities) completed measures of SCCT's central person (e.g., self-efficacy) and contextual (e.g., social support) variables. Findings indicated that the set of SCCT variables accounted for a large proportion of the variance in academic goals, regardless of student sex or university type. Implications for future research and for practical efforts to attract and retain women and students of color within engineering are discussed.