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Where the Wild Things Were

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Guided by social cognitive career theory, this study surveyed 873 college students to uncover who influences career messages the most, finding mothers as the top encouraging source, followed by teachers, friends, and fathers.

Image courtesy of interviewee. October 30, 2024

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This video discusses the lack of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields and the various factors influencing young girls' decisions regarding educational and career paths in these areas. Researchers examined communication issues as a potential factor, identifying the important role of media, educational environments, and family influences.

The study involved focus groups with high school students to explore the messages they receive about careers, particularly regarding gendered stereotypes and their impact on interest in STEM disciplines. Findings revealed that while both boys and girls had heard stereotypes (such as "only boys are good at math"), they didn't necessarily believe them. Girls indicated a lack of interest in STEM topics despite having the ability, which affected their motivation and resilience in facing challenges.

The researchers identified five types of messages received by young people:
1. **Value messages:** Encouragement to find meaningful and enjoyable careers.
2. **Expectation messages:** Emphasis on stability and long-term prospects.
3. **Prescription messages:** Directives about careers based on abilities.
4. **Opportunity messages:** Highlighting growing fields and job availability.
5. **Descriptive messages:** Informative insights into job roles and environments.

Personal factors such as exposure to career information and encouragement from family played a significant role in shaping career interests. The research emphasizes the importance of maintaining interest in STEM fields, noting that many students drop out after initially choosing these disciplines. It advocates for hands-on learning experiences and continuous encouragement to foster enduring engagement in STEM careers.

The follow-up studies explored how young people internalize career messages and identified three career frameworks:
1. **Enjoyment framework:** Seeking enjoyment in work.
2. **Ability framework:** Pursuing careers that match personal strengths.
3. **Goal framework:** Aiming for specific career-related goals and lifestyles.

Overall, the text highlights the complex interplay of societal messages, personal aspirations, and external encouragement in influencing young people's career choices, particularly for women in STEM.

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Here are five key points extracted from the video regarding the factors influencing young girls' interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) occupations:

1. **Limited Female Representation in STEM**: The video highlights a growing awareness and concern about the low participation of women in STEM fields, prompting researchers to investigate the underlying reasons for this trend, including the lack of role models and societal influences.

2. **Influence of Communication**: Communication plays a crucial role in shaping young people's perceptions of careers. The research focuses on what messages young people receive about various occupations from family, friends, and educators, as well as how they interpret these messages.

3. **Types of Messages Received**: The study identified five types of influential messages: value messages (finding meaningful work), expectation messages (stability and long-term prospects), prescription messages (specific career suggestions), opportunity messages (identifying areas with job demand), and descriptive messages (understanding job nature and environment).

4. **Personal Factors Impacting Career Choice**: Individual factors such as exposure to various occupations, socioeconomic background, and the ability to demonstrate resilience significantly affect young people's career interests. For example, girls from lower socioeconomic backgrounds may prioritize family over career aspirations, influencing their educational choices.

5. **Frameworks for Career Decision-Making**: The research categorizes young people's career interests into three frameworks: enjoyment-related (seeking fun and interesting work), ability-related (focusing on jobs they are good at), and goal-oriented (pursuing careers that fulfill personal ambitions or lifestyles). These frameworks guide the type of messages that resonate with them regarding career choices.

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Here are some key quotes from the video , summarizing the main ideas related to women's interest in STEM occupations:

1. **Awareness of Gender Disparity in STEM**:
- "There was a lot of interest and awareness of the fact that there were so few women in the STEM occupations."

2. **Research Question**:
- "Why is it that young girls are not choosing those educational paths? Why is it that women are not entering into the STEM occupations?"

3. **Role of Communication**:
- "In communication, we were aware that there are a number of different kinds of influences on young people persuading them to go into particular careers."

4. **Influence of Family**:
- "Family members play a huge role, in the modeling that they do, and in the way that they encourage young people."

5. **Messages Received by Young People**:
- "We were also interested in learning about particular communication that young people were receiving themselves... how were they interpreting these messages?"

6. **Socioeconomic Status and Career Choices**:
- "Young people that come from higher socioeconomic status backgrounds get established in a career, and then think about starting a family... lower socioeconomic status families tended to prioritize a family."

7. **Types of Messages Received**:
- "We found actually five types of messages... Value messages, expectation messages, prescription messages, opportunity messages, and descriptive messages."

8. **Importance of Exposure**:
- "It's hard to become interested in a career if you've never heard of it... exposure was things like... having a teacher introduced you to different kinds of occupations."

9. **Resilience in Career Pursuit**:
- "Resilience was important because, you know, we all encounter issues and... that ability to be able to bounce back is really important."

10. **Challenges of Retaining Interest in STEM**:
- "Just because young people choose to go into those areas of study or go into those disciplines, it does not mean that they're gonna stay in them."

11. **Career Frameworks in Decision Making**:
- "Some people are looking for careers that are enjoyment related... a second career framework is ability framework... the third kind is a goal framework."

12. **Encouragement and Discouragement in Messaging**:
- "Mothers were top of the list for giving encouraging kinds of messages... Discouraging messages were also important."

These quotes encapsulate the key themes and findings of the research on the factors influencing women's participation in STEM fields, emphasizing communication, messaging, and socio-cultural influences.

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That time, there was a lot of interest and,

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and awareness of the fact that there were so few women

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in the STEM occupations.

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And, so a lot of researchers began looking at

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that very issue to determine, you know, why is it that

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that young girls are not choosing those educational paths?

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Why is it that women are not entering into the

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STEM occupations?

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And so there was quite a bit

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of research looking at things like, you know,

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role models, whether

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or not there were effective role models of

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self-efficacy issues that women might have

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that might keep them away from STEM disciplines in the field

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of communication, a few of us started to look at, well,

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communication issues to see if there was some communication

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that was causing young girls to choose,

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to not enter those, those, those majors

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and also go into those fields.

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And so, in communication, we were aware

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that there are a number of different kinds

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of, influences.

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The media has a huge influence on,

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on young people persuading them

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to go into particular careers and so on.

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Education, obviously, maybe if they have a part-time job.

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But we were also aware that,

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family members play a huge role, in the modeling

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that they do,

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and in the way that they encourage young people.

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And so we were interested in looking

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at some of those issues.

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So one of the, the issues that we wanted

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to know about was generally speaking,

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what are young people hearing about careers?

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And if there's a, if there's certain gendered

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occupations, we were also interested in learning about

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particular communication that young people were,

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were receiving themselves.

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So what were they hearing from people close to them

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and who was providing that kind of messaging?

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We were also interested in,

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and this is really important,

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how were they interpreting these

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messages that they were hearing?

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What were they thinking about as they,

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as they were considering their own career paths?

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And so that was a, a big part of our,

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our motivation to go into this study.

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That model attempts to demonstrate various factors

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that go into shaping a young person's interest,

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in particular educational paths and career paths.

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And some of them are kind of foundational, you know, related

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to a person's socioeconomic status or their gender,

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or maybe their culture.

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But other things are more influential by communication

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and can be altered.

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We did a study, in a,

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200 mile region in the area, talking with young people,

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mostly high school students, males and females.

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We did focus groups. We did, we did 38 focus groups,

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and, we segregated them boys in one, girls in another.

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We went to their schools, got permission to, to talk

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with them, got parental permission of course,

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Asked them questions, get,

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did a little survey on their demographics and such.

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And we asked them questions about that.

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F first of all, we asked them questions about, you know,

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what have you heard regarding the generalization

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of certain occupations?

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Um, and, have you ever heard the things like,

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only boys are good at math or,

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or, girls don't do science, and that kind of thing.

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And we found, yes, they had all heard those things,

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but they didn't really necessarily believe them to be true.

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However, the girls,

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told us something really interesting.

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They told us that, that

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although they had the ability, a lot of 'em just weren't

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as interested in those topics as, as the boys might be,

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which had a big influence on whether

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or not they were willing to, to try to work hard at it, to,

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to, you know,

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demonstrate resilience if they had any sort of setbacks.

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We talked with them about that.

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We found some interesting links between, between,

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culture and socioeconomic status

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and some of the things that they were exposed to

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and the messages that they received.

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And I promise, I'm gonna get to the response

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to your, to your question there.

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We found that, young people

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that come from higher socioeconomic status backgrounds

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oftentimes are told, you know, launch your careers first,

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get established in a career,

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and then think about starting a family.

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But in a lot of, lower socioeconomic status,

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families or, or, in this case, I have to say that,

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that our lower socioeconomic status families tended

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to be also latine.

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Uh, and so there was a little bit of a, it was difficult

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to tease out which was the influence here,

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but a lot of the, the young girls, in those situations

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were often told, no, it's more important

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that you prioritize a family.

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So many of them were expecting

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to start their family first earlier

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than many of the other girls.

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But it was important for them to find a job

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that they could get easily in

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and out of, to be able to prioritize their family's needs.

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And it was interesting, one of the girls said, you know,

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we're told not to have like a big job to get a job

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but not get a big job, which means to them, I think, career.

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And so we did find some different types of messages

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that young people, did receive.

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We found actually five types of messages.

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One type of message is a value message.

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So that is, find a career that is a meaning for you.

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Find a career that you're going to be passionate about,

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maybe have strong abilities in.

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Uh, so that was one type.

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The second type was expectation messages.

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And these were messages about, find a job that has,

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stability, find a job that can be long-term,

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that you can be proud of in the future. A third was,

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Uh, prescription messages.

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And prescription messages were really directives saying,

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you know, you're really good at math.

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You should consider a job in engineering,

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or you're really good at arguing,

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you should consider going into law.

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Um, so these were another types of messages oftentimes given

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by, by friends or family as you might well expect.

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Um, opportunity messages

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or those that, talked about, entering a career

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where there was some opportunity,

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like there were a few people in in math

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and science for women.

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There's a lot of, need for people in pharmacy.

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So identified areas that that probably had,

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lots of opportunities.

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And then the fifth one, which we found

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to be really helpful was descriptive messages.

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Descriptive messages, told young people about

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what the work entailed, what the work environment was like,

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what they could expect out of a particular occupation.

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And these were the types of messages that a lot

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of young people said were really the most helpful to them

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because that enabled them to envision what it would be like

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to, to work in those careers.

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The personal factors really came into play,

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with those vast messages.

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One of them was, exposure.

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Um, exposure is really important

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because it's hard to become interested in a

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career if you've never heard of it.

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If you've never heard of a career,

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how do you know to go into it?

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So exposure was things like, you know,

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having a guest speaker in a class

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or having a teacher introduced you to different kinds

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of occupations, and maybe talk about them in a way that

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expressed some joy about them

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or the meaning of them,

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why young people would be interested in them.

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Another one was,

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if a person was very inspirational in talking about

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what they did, that kind of message would tended

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to resonate with them.

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When people expressed joy, they remembered it.

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They thought, wow, I could go into that

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and be as joyful as, as they are in doing,

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that kind of occupation.

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But the another one that was really

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important was resilience.

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And resilience was important

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because, you know, we all encounter issues and,

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and that ability to be able to bounce back

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is really important.

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A a lot of them had, been in situations

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where they had learned how to do that,

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but much of it came from family.

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Much of it came from, how much encouragement,

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excuse me, that they might have received from family

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or just instruction on how to bounce back.

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You could bounce back by doing this or that.

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If so, you didn't do well in this class, this is

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what you might be able to do to, you know,

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get back on your feet.

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And those kinds of messages were really, you know,

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important in helping them to develop that resiliency.

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And also, you know, interest in particular careers.

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And that's a really important factor here.

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And, and I'm kind of jumping to the end here,

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but a lot of, there's been a lot of work in looking at,

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you know, why young people don't go into particular

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STEM occupations.

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But what we have found through the years is that just

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because young people choose to go into those areas of study

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or go into those disciplines, it does not mean

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that they're gonna stay in them.

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And what they need to do is, is actually find meaning.

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They need to find, joy in doing that.

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And so, a lot of the research has shifted to, to

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maintaining them in these, in these areas.

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Uh, introducing hands-on kinds of,

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learning activities, exposure to people in occupations,

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you know, when you're in school, that really helps to,

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to sort of, fortify their interest in these areas.

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And, it's estimated that about 45% of people

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that go into STEM disciplines eventually,

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you know, drop out of them.

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So for people who are, you know, practitioners in, in,

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in HR departments

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and organizations, that's an important thing to consider.

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How can we keep people's interest alive?

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How can we continue to make this a meaningful kind

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of occupation day in

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and day out for, for these, for these workers?

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We did follow up on this research.

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Uh, one of the, the, follow up studies actually

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identified how young people,

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are internalized these kinds of messages.

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And what we found in our research was

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that there are three types of career frameworks

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that young people have,

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or actually that probably any people have.

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Um, some people are looking for careers

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that are enjoyment related.

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They wanna do something that they're gonna enjoy.

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So they are interested in seeking out jobs that look fun,

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interesting, exciting to them.

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And so they're interested in messages

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that give them insights into something that they think

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that they might enjoy.

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A second career framework is ability framework.

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If you have an ability framework,

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you are interested in finding a career

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that suits your abilities, you wanna do something

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that you're really good at.

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So the best messaging for someone

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that has an ability framework is to tell them, you know,

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you're really good at this,

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or, I've noticed you're really good at that.

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You should think about this kind of career.

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Those are the kinds of messages that they're gonna tune to.

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Um, the third kind is a goal framework,

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and that's kind of two parts.

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It sets you up for a goal.

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So let's say when you're young, you determine

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that you wanna become a doctor

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or you wanna become an attorney.

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You have set your sights on a goal

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and whatever it is that helps you to achieve that goal,

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that's what you wanna hear about.

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Related to that, in that category is also a lifestyle.

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So maybe it's a particular lifestyle

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that you wanna be able to enjoy.

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Of course, you know, making a lot of money is a,

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is a great thing to enjoy and really nice lifestyle

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or maybe having a a career flexibility is

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also really important to you.

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So you're looking for things, you're looking for careers

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and opportunities that will lead you to careers that will,

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will help you fulfill those goals.

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So that was one of the studies that we did as a follow-up.

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Um, and, and really useful, I think for educators

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and for family members

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who are interested in encouraging young people.

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Uh, another study that I did as a follow-up was, with a,

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with a grad student, looking at the messaging

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that young people receive

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and what, what did, what did young people find

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to be the most kind, most encouraging kinds of messages

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that they received about careers,

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and what did they find to be the most discouraging kinds

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of messages about careers and,

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and who gave those kinds of messages.

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And as you might well imagine, you know, mothers were top

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of the list for giving encouraging kinds of messages.

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You know, do something you're passionate about,

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do something that you love.

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Not always the best message,

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but you know, they, they're wanting to be helpful,

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they're wanting their child to be happy.

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So they give those kinds of messages.

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Discouraging messages were also important.

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These were, you know, you don't wanna do that

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and here's why You might think you wanna go into a,

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a veterinary school and become a vet,

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but do you realize what you're gonna have to do?

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And those kinds of messages, often given by peers

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were ones that were also very useful to young people.

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So anyway, that was a couple of branches that we,

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that we took from this initial study that,

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that really gave some insights into VAS.

Understanding Women's Underrepresentation in STEM Fields

00:00:00 - That time, there was a lot of interest and, and awareness of the fact that there were so few women in the STEM occupations. And, so a lot of researchers began looking at that very issue to determine, you know, why is it that that young girls are not choosing those educational paths? Why is it that women are not entering into the STEM occupations? And so there was quite a bit of research looking at things like, you know, role models, whether or not there were effective role models of

00:00:33 - that might keep them away from STEM disciplines in the field of communication, a few of us started to look at, well, communication issues to see if there was some communication that was causing young girls to choose, to not enter those, those, those majors and also go into those fields. And so, in communication, we were aware that there are a number of different kinds of, influences.

00:01:04 - on young people persuading them to go into particular careers and so on. Education, obviously, maybe if they have a part-time job. But we were also aware that, family members play a huge role, in the modeling that they do, and in the way that they encourage young people. And so we were interested in looking at some of those issues. So one of the, the issues that we wanted to know about was generally speaking, what are young people hearing about careers?

Exploring Influences on Career Choices Among Youth

00:01:39 - occupations, we were also interested in learning about particular communication that young people were, were receiving themselves. So what were they hearing from people close to them and who was providing that kind of messaging? We were also interested in, and this is really important, how were they interpreting these messages that they were hearing? What were they thinking about as they, as they were considering their own career paths? And so that was a, a big part of our,

00:02:07 - That model attempts to demonstrate various factors that go into shaping a young person's interest, in particular educational paths and career paths. And some of them are kind of foundational, you know, related to a person's socioeconomic status or their gender, or maybe their culture. But other things are more influential by communication and can be altered. We did a study, in a, 200 mile region in the area, talking with young people,

00:02:43 - We did focus groups. We did, we did 38 focus groups, and, we segregated them boys in one, girls in another. We went to their schools, got permission to, to talk with them, got parental permission of course, Asked them questions, get, did a little survey on their demographics and such. And we asked them questions about that. F first of all, we asked them questions about, you know, what have you heard regarding the generalization

Gender Stereotypes and Socioeconomic Influences on Girls' Interest in STEM

00:03:13 - and, have you ever heard the things like, only boys are good at math or, or, girls don't do science, and that kind of thing. And we found, yes, they had all heard those things, but they didn't really necessarily believe them to be true. However, the girls, told us something really interesting. They told us that, that although they had the ability, a lot of 'em just weren't as interested in those topics as, as the boys might be,

00:03:46 - or not they were willing to, to try to work hard at it, to, to, you know, demonstrate resilience if they had any sort of setbacks. We talked with them about that. We found some interesting links between, between, culture and socioeconomic status and some of the things that they were exposed to and the messages that they received. And I promise, I'm gonna get to the response to your, to your question there. We found that, young people that come from higher socioeconomic status backgrounds

00:04:20 - get established in a career, and then think about starting a family. But in a lot of, lower socioeconomic status, families or, or, in this case, I have to say that, that our lower socioeconomic status families tended to be also latine. and so there was a little bit of a, it was difficult to tease out which was the influence here, but a lot of the, the young girls, in those situations

Career Choices and Family Priorities in Young Women

00:04:51 - that you prioritize a family. So many of them were expecting to start their family first earlier than many of the other girls. But it was important for them to find a job that they could get easily in and out of, to be able to prioritize their family's needs. And it was interesting, one of the girls said, you know, we're told not to have like a big job to get a job but not get a big job, which means to them, I think, career.

00:05:23 - that young people, did receive. We found actually five types of messages. One type of message is a value message. So that is, find a career that is a meaning for you. Find a career that you're going to be passionate about, maybe have strong abilities in. so that was one type. The second type was expectation messages. And these were messages about, find a job that has, stability, find a job that can be long-term,

00:05:56 - prescription messages. And prescription messages were really directives saying, you know, you're really good at math. You should consider a job in engineering, or you're really good at arguing, you should consider going into law. so these were another types of messages oftentimes given by, by friends or family as you might well expect. opportunity messages or those that, talked about, entering a career

Impact of Descriptive Messaging on Career Interest

00:06:24 - like there were a few people in in math and science for women. There's a lot of, need for people in pharmacy. So identified areas that that probably had, lots of opportunities. And then the fifth one, which we found to be really helpful was descriptive messages. Descriptive messages, told young people about what the work entailed, what the work environment was like, what they could expect out of a particular occupation.

00:06:55 - of young people said were really the most helpful to them because that enabled them to envision what it would be like to, to work in those careers. The personal factors really came into play, with those vast messages. One of them was, exposure. exposure is really important because it's hard to become interested in a career if you've never heard of it. If you've never heard of a career, how do you know to go into it? So exposure was things like, you know,

00:07:26 - or having a teacher introduced you to different kinds of occupations, and maybe talk about them in a way that expressed some joy about them or the meaning of them, why young people would be interested in them. Another one was, if a person was very inspirational in talking about what they did, that kind of message would tended to resonate with them. When people expressed joy, they remembered it.

Fostering Resilience and Joy in Career Choices

00:07:57 - and be as joyful as, as they are in doing, that kind of occupation. But the another one that was really important was resilience. And resilience was important because, you know, we all encounter issues and, and that ability to be able to bounce back is really important. A a lot of them had, been in situations where they had learned how to do that, but much of it came from family. Much of it came from, how much encouragement,

00:08:31 - or just instruction on how to bounce back. You could bounce back by doing this or that. If so, you didn't do well in this class, this is what you might be able to do to, you know, get back on your feet. And those kinds of messages were really, you know, important in helping them to develop that resiliency. And also, you know, interest in particular careers. And that's a really important factor here. And, and I'm kind of jumping to the end here,

00:09:01 - you know, why young people don't go into particular STEM occupations. But what we have found through the years is that just because young people choose to go into those areas of study or go into those disciplines, it does not mean that they're gonna stay in them. And what they need to do is, is actually find meaning. They need to find, joy in doing that. And so, a lot of the research has shifted to, to

Enhancing Engagement in STEM Careers: Strategies for Retention and Fulfillment

00:09:32 - introducing hands-on kinds of, learning activities, exposure to people in occupations, you know, when you're in school, that really helps to, to sort of, fortify their interest in these areas. And, it's estimated that about 45% of people that go into STEM disciplines eventually, you know, drop out of them. So for people who are, you know, practitioners in, in, in HR departments

00:10:03 - How can we keep people's interest alive? How can we continue to make this a meaningful kind of occupation day in and day out for, for these, for these workers? We did follow up on this research. one of the, the, follow up studies actually identified how young people, are internalized these kinds of messages. And what we found in our research was that there are three types of career frameworks

00:10:33 - or actually that probably any people have. some people are looking for careers that are enjoyment related. They wanna do something that they're gonna enjoy. So they are interested in seeking out jobs that look fun, interesting, exciting to them. And so they're interested in messages that give them insights into something that they think that they might enjoy. A second career framework is ability framework. If you have an ability framework, you are interested in finding a career

Navigating Career Choices: The Role of Messaging and Frameworks

00:11:07 - that you're really good at. So the best messaging for someone that has an ability framework is to tell them, you know, you're really good at this, or, I've noticed you're really good at that. You should think about this kind of career. Those are the kinds of messages that they're gonna tune to. the third kind is a goal framework, and that's kind of two parts. It sets you up for a goal. So let's say when you're young, you determine

00:11:37 - or you wanna become an attorney. You have set your sights on a goal and whatever it is that helps you to achieve that goal, that's what you wanna hear about. Related to that, in that category is also a lifestyle. So maybe it's a particular lifestyle that you wanna be able to enjoy. Of course, you know, making a lot of money is a, is a great thing to enjoy and really nice lifestyle or maybe having a a career flexibility is also really important to you. So you're looking for things, you're looking for careers

00:12:11 - will help you fulfill those goals. So that was one of the studies that we did as a follow-up. and, and really useful, I think for educators and for family members who are interested in encouraging young people. another study that I did as a follow-up was, with a, with a grad student, looking at the messaging that young people receive and what, what did, what did young people find to be the most kind, most encouraging kinds of messages

Impact of Encouragement and Discouragement in Career Choices

00:12:41 - and what did they find to be the most discouraging kinds of messages about careers and, and who gave those kinds of messages. And as you might well imagine, you know, mothers were top of the list for giving encouraging kinds of messages. You know, do something you're passionate about, do something that you love. Not always the best message, but you know, they, they're wanting to be helpful, they're wanting their child to be happy. So they give those kinds of messages. Discouraging messages were also important.

00:13:35 - and here's why You might think you wanna go into a, a veterinary school and become a vet, but do you realize what you're gonna have to do? And those kinds of messages, often given by peers were ones that were also very useful to young people. So anyway, that was a couple of branches that we, that we took from this initial study that, that really gave some insights into VAS.

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