Dataset - Students' reported attraction to IT programs, persistence-related perceptions, and career perspectives in Brazilian higher education

This dataset contains the anonymized survey data underlying the study "Students’ Reported Attraction to IT Programs, Persistence-Related Perceptions, and Career Perspectives in Brazilian Higher Education." The research investigates the individual, social, and contextual factors associated with students' attraction to Information Technology (IT) undergraduate programs, their persistence-related perceptions, and their career expectations within the Brazilian higher education context. The dataset consists of responses collected from undergraduate students enrolled in IT-related degree programs at Brazilian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). It includes demographic and socioeconomic variables, educational background, and a comprehensive set of psychometric indicators measured using Likert-type scales. The variables are organized into the following domains: Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics: gender, age group, family income, height, weight, race/ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, city, institution type, teaching modality, academic program, and months completed in the program. Technology attraction and vocational interest: perceived interest, aptitude, skills, and motivations related to technology and computing careers. Social influences: effects of family members, friends, romantic partners, professional contacts, networking, media content, previous educational experiences, and work colleagues on the decision to pursue IT studies. Contextual and environmental factors: perceptions regarding labor market opportunities, economic conditions, globalization, funding policies, institutional location, and employment prospects. Interest in specific IT domains: programming, computer networks, human-computer interaction, databases, systems analysis and design, software engineering, cybersecurity, technical support, IT management, and game development. Self-efficacy: students' perceived competence in different IT knowledge domains. Outcome expectations: expectations regarding future professional success and career opportunities in IT and its specific areas. Learning and educational experience: perceptions regarding collaborative learning, lifelong learning, online education, educational technologies, self-directed learning, experiential learning, flexible learning, and innovative pedagogical practices. Career perspectives: perceived employability, career readiness, alignment between higher education and labor market demands, and intentions to pursue careers in IT. Data quality indicators: integrity (attention-check) items included to assess response consistency. The instrument was developed based on theoretical constructs derived from career development and educational psychology literature and was validated using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modeling (SEM). All data have been fully anonymized. No personally identifiable information is included. The dataset is provided to support transparency, reproducibility, secondary analyses, psychometric research, and comparative studies on students' educational and career trajectories in Information Technology.