The Effect of a Caring Intervention on Engineering Identity: Insights from a One-Day Outreach Event with Elementary and Middle School Girl Scouts

Women enter Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) occupations that are commonly associated with helping and caring (e.g., health and life sciences) at much higher rates than engineering occupations. Girls interested in STEM might be unaware of the opportunities that engineering offers to help others. In this study, elementary and middle school-aged girls in the United States attended a one-day outreach event focused on environmental engineering, where they participated in hands-on activities. Participants were placed in either the caring (treatment) or control condition, where those in the caring condition heard explicit messages about engineering as a caring profession and those in the control condition did not. Before and after the outreach event, participants (n = 88) completed the Engineering Identity Development Scale (EIDS). Participants in the caring condition had higher occupational identity following the outreach event as compared to participants in the control condition (post-survey), indicating a better understanding of the engineering profession. Additionally, the engineering aspirations of middle school participants were positively impacted as compared to elementary participants. Explicit messaging about caring can help to rectify misperceptions of the engineering profession and to improve girls' understanding of engineering. Additionally, our findings suggest that such outreach events are important for the development of engineering identity in middle school girls and can encourage their engineering aspirations.