Modelling the relationship between parents’ STEM awareness and elementary school children’s STEM career interest and attitudes.

Previous research has indicated that parents’ awareness of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) directly affects children’s interests and attitudes. Based on this discovery, this study sought to dig deeper into the relationship between parents’ awareness of STEM and how that plays a role in their children’s thinking when considering a career. Elementary school students and their parents studying in the Southeastern Anatolian region of Turkey were included in the study. All in all, 541 elementary school students (M_age = 9.26) and their parents (n = 341) elected to participate. Descriptive statistical analyses and structural equation modeling were applied to the data. The descriptive statistical analysis results showed that parents’ STEM awareness, students’ STEM attitudes, and STEM career interest scores were high. According to the results of the path analysis, parents’ STEM awareness affects STEM career interest of their children primarily through attitudes. The results obtained from the study were discussed in the light of the literature, and implications were presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]