Factors influencing the pursuit of health and science careers for Canadian adolescents in transition from school and work

Previous research separately acknowledges two emerging trends in adolescence but neglects to integrate them. These are that many changes have occurred in the school to work transitional processes, and that there is substantial need for adolescents, especially young women, to pursue science career pathways. In this study, we link these trends and develop predictive, interactive models of science pursuit for 836 Canadian secondary school graduates living through a period of massive change in school to work transitional processes. Separate logit analyses were conducted for males and females. Results suggest that young women are not under-represented in the pursuit of science careers in high school. Young women aspire more frequently to medical and health sciences, and young men to natural sciences, engineering and mathematics. For young women, father's occupation in science, curriculum track and level of occupational expectation were significant in the model, correctly predicting 72% of membership in science. For males, socioeconomic status, family support, level of occupational expectation, regional unemployment levels and items measuring work environment were significant in the model that predicted 81% of membership in science. The findings suggest the salience of gender-differentiated school to work transition models in determining pursuit of health and science career pathways.