Parents’ science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) support is theorized to influence adolescents’ choices to pursue STEM majors and careers (Eccles & Wigfield, 2020). Theory posits that parents’ STEM support is situated within the immediate contexts and, thus, is shaped by both parents’ beliefs about education and STEM as well as adolescents’ achievements and interests (Eccles & Wigfield, 2020), but the current empirical evidence testing these theoretical tenets remains limited. Using data from the nationally representative High School Longitudinal Study (HSLS; n = 12,070; Mage = 14.37; 50% female adolescents; 57% White, 16% Latine, 10% Black, 8% Asian, and 10% other ethnic adolescents), this paper examined two parent-level factors (i.e., parents’ educational expectations for adolescents and their math/science parenting self-efficacy) and two adolescent-level factors (i.e., adolescents’ math/science interests and math achievement) to understand what predicts parents’ STEM support in 11th grade, controlling for parents’ STEM support in 9th grade. In addition, we examined the extent to which parents’ STEM support in 11th grade predicted adolescents’ STEM college major, controlling for other major predictors. Parents’ math/science parenting self-efficacy beliefs positively predicted the relative changes in parents’ STEM support from 9th to 11th grade, which positively predicted adolescents’ STEM college major. Additionally, the parents of female and male continuing-generation college students provided more STEM support and had higher educational expectations for their adolescents than parents of first-generation college students. This study provides insights for policymakers and practitioners to focus on the potential precursors of parental socialization of STEM choices during high school and college.
