Compugirls: Stepping stone to future computer-based technology pathways

The COMPUGIRLS: Culturally relevant technology program for adolescent girls was developed to promote underrepresented girls' future possible selves and career pathways in computer-related technology fields. We hypothesized that the COMPUGIRLS would promote academic possible selves and self-regulation to achieve these possible selves. We compared the growth trajectories of academic possible selves and self-regulation between the program participants and a comparison group using latent growth modeling for two semesters. There was no significant group difference in the growth trajectories of academic possible selves. The findings support that the COMPUGIRLS did not accelerate the program participants' academic possible selves. However, the program participants had a significantly higher growth rate in self-regulation than the comparison group. We argue that the higher growth rate of self-regulation could help the program participants achieve academic possible selves which is important for choosing technology career pathways.