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Title: Brothers, Sisters, and STEM Majoring: Is a Younger Sibling's Choice of College Major Affected by the Firstborn's Sex and Ability in Math?
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Gabay-Egozi, Limor Grieger, Lloyd D. Nitsche, Natalie |
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Brothers, Sisters, and STEM Majoring: Is a Younger Sibling's Choice of College Major Affected by the Firstborn's Sex and Ability in Math? Presented: Austin TX, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2019 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: Population Association of America Keyword(s): Brothers; College Major/Field of Study/Courses; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Siblings; Sisters; STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Though women reached parity with men in terms of college attendance, fewer women choose STEM majors. We examine whether the compositional characteristics of a sib-group are associated with a younger sibling's decision to pursue a STEM major in college. Theoretically, we conjoin and extend sociological theories that link sib-group configuration and educational attainment to STEM majoring. Empirically, we use data from the children of the NLSY79-cohort and find that sib-group size is negatively associated with pursuing a STEM major. We show that math ability of the firstborn is positively associated with a sibling’s choice of a STEM major in college, but only among same-sex siblings. Finally, number of brothers is positively associated with choosing a STEM major for both girls and boys. Our work is the first to provide evidence about the link between sib-group compositional characteristics and the choice of college major by younger siblings in the U.S. |
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Bibliography Citation
Gabay-Egozi, Limor, Lloyd D. Grieger and Natalie Nitsche. "Brothers, Sisters, and STEM Majoring: Is a Younger Sibling's Choice of College Major Affected by the Firstborn's Sex and Ability in Math?" Presented: Austin TX, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2019. |