2026-07-22T19:01:23Zhttps://riubu.ubu.es/oai/request

oai:riubu.ubu.es:10259/101432025-02-01T01:05:31Zcom_10259_4145com_10259_5086com_10259_2604col_10259_4146

Toma, Radu Bogdan Expectancy-value Loss of valued alternatives Task effort Perceived difficulty Regression analysis The lack of students interested in pursuing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related careers calls for studies that identify variables affecting their career decisions. By drawing on recent conceptualizations of the cost domain first introduced in the expectancy-value theory of achievement motivations, this study investigated whether the perceived difficulty of school science predicted and affected elementary school students (N = 245) task effort and loss of valued alternatives experienced while engaging in a science-related course. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that students’ perceived difficulty significantly predicted levels of cost experienced when studying science. Likewise, multi-factor ANOVAs revealed that students perceiving school science as a difficult subject reported significantly higher levels of task effort and loss of valued alternatives related to studying science. These findings suggest that the attitudinal dimensions of perceived difficulty play a promising role in the development of cost in science, which has valuable implications for repairing the leaky STEM pipeline. 2025-01-31 2025-01-31 2022-04 info:eu-repo/semantics/article 0157-244X http://hdl.handle.net/10259/10143 10.1007/s11165-020-09963-5 1573-1898 eng Research in Science Education. 2022, V. 52, n. 2, p. 553–565 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-020-09963-5 info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess Springer