%0 Journal Article %A Flores, Lisa Y. %A Li, Feihan %A Navarro, Rachel L. %D 2017 %I Begell House %K Latino/a, social cognitive career theory, engineering, racial/ethnic minority, career development, self-efficacy, barriers, supports %N 4 %P 365-383 %R 10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.2017019648 %T EXPLORING GENDER AND RACIAL DIFFERENCES BY TESTING A MODEL OF ENGINEERING STUDENTS' PERSISTENCE INTENTIONS IN HOLLAND'S REALISTIC AND INVESTIGATIVE DOMAINS %U https://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/00551c876cc2f027,40648be8069d9a95,0df0e3271841c881.html %V 23 %X The current study tested a model of persistence intentions in engineering based on Lent, Brown, and Hackett [J. Vocat. Behav., vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 79–122, 1994; J. Couns. Psychol., vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 36–49, 2000] social cognitive career theory (SCCT) in Holland's (Holland, J.L., Making Vocational Choices: A Theory of Vocational Personalities and Work Environments, 3rd ed., Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources, 1997] Realistic and Investigative domains. Using a diverse sample of 515 engineering students attending a Hispanic Serving Institution in the southwest region of the U.S., the findings indicated that the proposed combined effects SCCT model, which included both direct effects and indirect effects via self-efficacy from contextual variables to persistence intentions, fit the data for the sample better than two alternate models. Significant paths were found between Realistic/Investigative self-efficacy and Realistic/Investigative interests, respectively, and between all of the contextual variables (i.e., engineering support, engineering barriers, perceived gender-related barriers, perceived race-related barriers) and engineering persistence intentions in both the Realistic and Investigative domains. For the Realistic domain, the path from perceived gender-related career barriers to self-efficacy was also significant. For the Investigative domain, the path from perceived engineering barriers to self-efficacy was significant. SCCT predictors accounted for an 18.4% and 20.5% of variance in engineering persistence intentions for Realistic and Investigative models, respectively. Finally, the model parameters did not vary across women and men nor across Latina/o and White engineering students for both the Realistic and Investigative models. Implications for research and practice are discussed in relation to persistence in engineering among women and Latina/o students. %8 2018-02-26