Determinants of Major Choice and Academic Expectations: Testing a Prediction Model Across Gender

Abstract

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With this study, we aim to test the predictive relationships between determinants of major choice (DMC) and academic expectations (AEs) and to analyze gender differences, using six items of the Determinants of Major Choice Scale and the Academic Perceptions Questionnaire to assess AEs. A convenience sample of Portuguese (n = 839) and Spanish (n = 1,001) first-year students (age-range = 17–23 years), mostly composed of women (56.9%, n = 1,047), was selected from two public universities. The invariance of the multivariate regression model with latent variables of the effect of DMC on AEs, with determinants linked to Personal Characteristics (PCs; e.g., capacities) and Mediating Agents (MAs; e.g., parents) as AE predictors, was tested across gender with LISREL. The invariance test of the multivariate regression model across gender fit the data well and revealed an equivalence of slopes between women and men, which allows a unique interpretation of the model’s predictive relationships for both genders. We also found statistically significant predictive relationships of PCs for six AE factors and MAs for five AE factors. The results showed theoretical relationships with the self-determination theory. At a practical level, they indicated the importance of PCs and MAs to design AE intervention programs in Higher Education (HE) institutions.

Keywords

• major choice
• academic expectations
• first-year students
• gender
• structural equation modeling