Underrepresented minorities and social cognitive career theory: an investigation of the effectiveness of increasing math and science interest and self-efficacy in the context of a healthcare career intervention with rural Latino and White-identified middle school students

Currently, there exists a cultural/racial disparity in the quality of healthcare and subsequent health outcomes (Sullivan, 2004; Arora, Schneider, Thal, & Meltzer, 2011). This has been linked to lack of ethnic minority representation within the field of healthcare (Cohen, Gabriel, & Terrell, 2002; Freeman, Ferrer, & Greiner, 2007). In response, there has been a national effort to intervene at various levels of education to address disparities in healthcare career-related knowledge and abilities. According to Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), the prevalence of math and science within healthcare careers will decrease interest in this field for those lacking confidence and/or abilities in the aforementioned areas. The current manuscript describes and evaluates the impact of increasing the math and science-related content of a healthcare career intervention, Project HOPE (Health Opportunities Preparation and Exploration) (Ali, 2013), on math /science self-efficacy and interest and healthcare career interest. Results from measures presented both pre- and post-intervention were analyzed using the repeated measures design for 2 MANOVAs and 1 ANOVA. Based on these analyses, participants demonstrated a significant increase in math/science interest and self-efficacy. These results are discussed in the final section, in addition to limitations and implications for SCCT and healthcare career interventions.