Spanish High School Students’ Interests in Technology: Applying Social Cognitive Career Theory

The authors have examined the relative contribution of personal (emotional state, gender-role attitudes), contextual (perceived social supports and barriers), and cognitive (self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations) variables to technological interests in a sample (N = 2,364) of 10th-grade Spanish students. The results of path analysis supported social cognitive career theory (SCCT), indicating that technological self-efficacy contributed to technological interests and technological outcome expectations. Perceived social support and perceived social barriers were related to technological self-efficacy, technological outcome expectations, and technological interests. However, the results did not support the hypothesis that outcome expectations contribute to interests. Contrary to expectations, there was no influence of gender-role attitudes on technological self-efficacy, but gender-role attitudes did determine technological interests. Finally, our study demonstrated that emotional state influenced technological self-efficacy beliefs, technological outcome expectations, and technological interests. This research extends previous work in this area by examining an understudied group, Spanish teenage students.