2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) has been used to determine how – or if – one’s
intentions are predictive of their behaviors in various contexts. In short, TPB posits that if one has positive attitude (behavioral beliefs), positive subjective norms (normative beliefs), and perceived behavioral control (control beliefs) toward a behavior, it will lead to an intention and ultimately, materialize in said behavior.

We are using TPB to examine post-graduation intentions and outcomes of undergraduate
engineering students. For this paper, we focused on baseline data for a larger longitudinal study. In particular, we examined the following questions: (1) To what extent did students indicate plans to enter the STEM workforce and/or STEM graduate programs after graduation? (2) What behavioral, subjective, and/or control factors influenced their decisions? (3) Did those factors differ by income status, operationalized by Pell Grant status?

Our population was a group of undergraduate engineering students participating in a project funded by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (S-STEM) program. S-STEM aims to increase the inclusion of graduates from low-income backgrounds in the STEM workforce and/or STEM graduate programs. We administered a Post-Graduation Plans Survey (PGPS) to all participants to understand their post-graduation intentions and the factors that influenced those intentions.

To capture post-graduation intentions, we asked if they planned to enter the STEM workforce, STEM master’s or doctoral programs or other advanced degree programs within six months of graduating. Due to the small numbers of respondents in each category, we aggregated responses of intentions to pursue careers in the STEM workforce, graduate degrees (STEM master’s, STEM doctoral), and combinations of responses. Results indicated most students expressed intentions to enter the STEM workforce after graduation and that Pell Grant recipients expressed stronger intentions to enter the STEM workforce, a STEM graduate program, or both compared to their peers who did not receive Pell Grants. We obtained a significant predictive model for the STEM workforce outcome, with more positive normative and control beliefs significantly influencing the likelihood students would express the intent to enter the STEM workforce after graduation. We did not obtain a significant model for predicting students’ intentions toward entering a STEM graduate program or the intention to both enter the STEM workforce and a graduate program after graduation. Analyses by Pell Grant status yielded mixed results that require further study.

Results from this study may help inform strategies for supporting and cultivating pathways for engineering students, with emphasis on those from low-income backgrounds. It will serve NSF and the broader S-STEM community of current and prospective investigators as they seek evidence-based strategies for supporting student success.