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This meta-analysis examined the structure of the four theoretical sources of self-efficacy (mastery experience, vicarious learning, verbal persuasion, and affective state) and their relations to efficacy beliefs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Data were derived from 104 studies (including 141 independent samples) conducted across a 37-year period (1977–2013). Based on analysis of all samples, the omnibus test offered support for a two-source factor model of the efficacy sources: direct personal experiences (comprised of prior mastery experience, verbal persuasion, and affective state) and vicarious learning. Both sources were predictive of self-efficacy and outcome expectations. Moderator analyses supported the validity of the two-source model and accounted for substantial amounts of the variance in self-efficacy by gender, race/ethnicity, age group, and type of mastery experience (subjective vs. objective) measurement. Across all moderating conditions, the direct experiences factor was highly correlated with vicarious learning and produced large positive paths to self-efficacy. Vicarious learning yielded small yet negative paths to self-efficacy, which likely resulted from statistical suppression. A greater portion of the variance in self-efficacy was explained when mastery experience was assessed subjectively than objectively. We discuss practical implications of gender and racial/ethnic differences in the model tests along with the implications of the findings for theory and future research.

We examined the utility of social cognitive variables in the longitudinal prediction of academic persistence and success of engineering students. The participants, 908 students enrolled in engineering majors at two state universities, completed measures of academic support, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, satisfaction, positive affect, and intended persistence at the end of each of their first four semesters. In the current study, students' first and second semester responses were used to predict persistence and grade performance in engineering by the end of six semesters. Path analytic findings indicated that second-semester persistence intentions, satisfaction with the major, self-efficacy, and social support each produced direct paths to persistence. Objective ability (mathematics SAT scores), outcome expectations, and interests were linked to persistence indirectly via their relations to other variables in the model. In addition, self-efficacy and objective ability jointly predicted grade performance. Results were stable across gender and racial/ethnic groups. Implications for research and practice on academic adjustment in engineering are considered.

We conducted a longitudinal test of a social cognitive model of academic adjustment in a sample of 732 engineering students. The model, designed to explain students' satisfaction with and intentions to persist in their majors, integrated features of social cognitive career theory's (SCCT) segmental models of satisfaction, interest, choice, and performance (Lent & Brown, 2006; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994). Students completed measures of academic support, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, satisfaction, positive affect, and intended persistence at three time points (at the end of their second, third, and fourth semesters in engineering). A bidirectional version of the model offered good fit to the data, both in the larger sample and across gender and racial/ethnic groups. Self-efficacy was the most reliable direct predictor of academic satisfaction and intended persistence across the third and fourth semesters, though other social cognitive variables also contributed, either directly or indirectly, to predictions at one time point or the other. We consider implications of the findings for further research and practice on academic adjustment and persistence in STEM fields.

We tested a social cognitive model of academic adjustment in a sample of 1377 students enrolled in engineering schools at two predominantly White and two historically Black state universities. The model brought together central elements of social cognitive career theory's (SCCT) segmental models of educational/vocational satisfaction, interest, choice, and performance/persistence ( Lent and Brown, 2006 , Lent et al., 1994 ). The model was specifically designed to examine the interplay between interest and satisfaction in predicting students' intentions to remain in engineering majors. The integrative model offered good fit to the data both in the larger sample and in sub-samples of women, men, and racial/ethnic majority and minority students. The relation of interests to intended persistence was fully mediated by satisfaction. The findings both extend research on SCCT and suggest linkages to theories of person-environment fit. Implications for further research and practice on academic adjustment and persistence in STEM fields are considered.

Social cognitive career theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994 ) seeks to explain the factors that shape educational and vocational interests and choices. We used meta-analytic path analyses to synthesize data (from 1981 to 2008) relevant to SCCT’s interest and choice hypotheses, organizing the literature according to Holland’s (1997) broad occupational themes. Sufficient data were available to test (a) a 6-variable version of the interest/choice model in the Realistic, Investigative, and Enterprising themes, and (b) a 4-variable version of the model in the Artistic, Social, and Conventional themes. Analyses of both model versions were generally consistent with theoretical expectations. However, tests of the 6-variable model indicated better support for representing the pathways from contextual variables to choice goals as being partially mediated by self-efficacy and outcome expectations rather than as producing only direct linkages to goals. We consider implications of the findings for theory, research, and SCCT-based interventions.

Recent meta-analyses of the career choice intervention literature ( Brown & Ryan Krane, 2000 ; Ryan, 1999 ) identified five intervention ingredients that were individually associated with career choice outcome, and collectively were linearly related to increases in career choice effect sizes. In this article, we summarize these meta-analytic findings, present analyses that further confirm these ingredients’ importance, and present some hypotheses to define each of the critical ingredients and suggest how they might be implemented to maximize their effectiveness.