Gender differences in STEM careers: autonomy-supportive climate, metacognitive strategies, self-efficacy, and their association with academic performance and satisfaction

STEM education has always played a central role in scientific and technological advancement; however, recent years have seen heightened attention to the academic challenges faced by students in STEM programs. An important one is that in a predominantly male environment like that of STEM fields, the academic experience of women is often not the same as that of their male peers. In response to these problems, this research aims to analyze whether educational factors such as the use of metacognitive strategies and an autonomy-supportive climate are associated with academic self-efficacy and, in turn, how these factors are associated with students’ academic performance and academic satisfaction. Furthermore, it aims to explore patterns of statistical significance across gender groups using multigroup SEM analysis. In the results, the hypothesized general SEM model demonstrated good fit indices. The model also met invariance criteria, after which multigroup SEM analyses were conducted. The factors associated with academic self-efficacy were found to be the autonomy-supportive climate and metacognitive strategies in both gender groups. Regarding academic satisfaction, the association with academic self-efficacy was statistically significant among women but not among men, whereas the association with an autonomy-supportive climate was significant among men but not women. Finally, academic self-efficacy and autonomy-supportive climate were found to be associated with academic performance among women but not among men. The results show different patterns of statistical significance across gender groups and open valuable questions about associations between academic variables and students’ academic experiences in STEM programs.