This paper is aimed to explain the certain determinants of aspirations for STEM occupations among primary school boys and girls in Croatia. The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) problem is relatively new, emerging and socially very relevant. The interest of youth for vocations is this field is declining, resulting in shortage of STEM graduates and experts (EU, 2004; Osborne i Dillan, 2008; UNESCO, 2010). However, the comprehensive studies of problems related to the diminished interest for the STEM field in Croatia have not been carried out. The early formation of STEM interests among boys and girls is particularly important in the context of Croatian educational system, where students have to make their first career decisions at the age of 14, choosing different educational paths. In this study, we used the Social Cognitive Career Theory (Lent, Brown and Hackett, 1994) as a theoretical framework to predict interest and intention to pursue STEM educational choices and careers among primary school students. This model encompasses measures of an individual's self-efficacy, outcome expectations, personal inputs and background, and contextual supports and/or barriers to explain reasoning behind students' academic or career choices. One particular characteristic that affects STEM interest and career choice is gender. Studies show that boys and girls differ in their attitudes towards the STEM field (Becker, 1989; Sjoberg & Schreiner, 2005) and interest for STEM school subjects (Murphy & Whitelegg, 2006; Osborne, Simon, & Collins, 2003). They also differ in their actual STEM career choices, with a smaller number of women than men in these careers (Blickenstaff, 2005; Ceci, Williams, & Barnett, 2009; Gallagher & Kaufman, 2005; Watt & Eccles, 2008). Some studies showed (e.g., Fredricks & Eccles, 2002; Hyde et al., 1990) that gender differences in academic self-concept mediate career choice and that they are the primary explanation for the diminished interest of women in STEM careers. Others (e.g., Schreiner and Sjoberg, 2007) proposed that the main reason why young female do not choose careers in engineering and related fields is because they cannot identify themselves with these careers. Thus, we wanted to test the hypothesis that the determinants of STEM career aspirations have different pattern for boys and girls. We used variables related to students' family characteristics and parental attitudes, peers influences, school achievement, attitudes toward STEM education in school, STEM self-concept, and STEM activities outside the schools in order to predict STEM career aspirations among boys and girls.

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