In his study of 11 years worth of transcripts from the High School and
Beyond/Sophomore Cohort Longitudinal Study, Adelman (1998) aimed to
better understand the migration of students into and out of engineering,
including the role played by factors such as academic performance, student
perceptions of the labor market, and student misconceptions surrounding what
a particular field of study is all about. The findings of this study are extensive
and, while they are not directly related to self-efficacy, they provide helpful clues
concerning gender differences. For example, analyses showed that women
who were faced with failing a course were more likely to leave the engineering
program altogether, while men were more likely to repeat the course and
continue pursuing engineering. It was also noted that women who left
engineering had higher GPA’s, on average, than their male peers, suggesting
that women do not leave because they are experiencing poor academic
performance. Rather, findings indicate the motivation to be related to academic
dissatisfaction.