Predicting High School Students’ Transportation Career Intentions: The Roles of Gender and Belonging

Abstract

Transportation, Distribution, and Logistics is one of the 15 occupational areas covered under the National Career Clusters?? Framework and is projected to grow in the next decade. The exclusion of women in transportation is a significant barrier to ensuring a robust and equitable workforce. This study examined predictors of transportation career intentions in a sample (N = 263) of high school students. Participants completed measures of: attitudes toward transportation careers, social norms, ambient belonging, and transportation career intentions. Results of structural equation modeling indicated a model with attitudes, social norms, and ambient belonging as predictors of intentions provided a close fit to the data and that the path from ambient belonging to transportation career intentions was significant. The final structural model explained 66% of the variance in intentions. A multiple group analysis indicated that the relationship between ambient belonging and intentions was stronger for girls than boys. Results have implications for the role of belonging in transportation career and technical education.