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Parental Occupational Choice and Children’s Entry into a STEM Field

Albert Cheng,
Katherine Kopotic,
Gema Zamarro

We explore the intergenerational occupational transmission between parents and their children as it pertains to entry into the STEM field. Using the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, we study student’s aspirations to work in a STEM field and eventual STEM education and employment. We show how these patterns change depending on whether the student’s parents work in a STEM field. We find strong effects of parental occupation type on student’s STEM outcomes that are heterogeneous by student gender. High school boys are more likely to aspire to work in STEM if one of their parents do so. By adulthood, both boys and girls have a higher probability of majoring and working in a STEM field if their parents also do, and in this case, estimated effects are stronger for girls despite a lack of effects on high school girls’ aspirations. For girls but not for boys, having a parent working in STEM increases the probability of entering the STEM field in adulthood above and beyond aspirations to enter the STEM field during adolescence.

Keywords
occupational choice; intergenerational occupational transmission; STEM gender
Education level
Post-secondary education
Topics
Pathways to and Through Postsecondary
Tags
Science education,
Higher education,
Equity
Download 10/2019
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/nbc6-cb69
EdWorkingPaper suggested citation:
Cheng, Albert, Katherine Kopotic, and Gema Zamarro. (). Parental Occupational Choice and Children’s Entry into a STEM Field. (EdWorkingPaper: -146). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/nbc6-cb69

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