With STEAM contests being effective for stimulating students’ interest in STEAM fields, it is crucial to investigate the factors influencing students’ continuance intention for STEAM contests. Previous studies have mainly concentrated on examining the relationships between continuance intention and perceived value (e.g., perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment) in a hands-on learning context, while the impacts of pragmatistic STEAM value and transformativistic value on behavioral intention have not been discussed. To bridge this gap, our research examined the associations among students’ hands-on making self-efficacy, pragmatistic STEAM value, transformativistic value, and their continuance intention for STEAM contests. A total of 203 elementary school students attending the iSTEAM PowerTech Final Contest took part in our study. Structural equation modeling was applied to evaluate the hypotheses. The findings showed that hands-on making self-efficacy exhibited a significant and positive relationship with pragmatistic STEAM value and transformativistic value. Pragmatistic STEAM value and transformativistic value can significantly and positively predict continuance intention. Furthermore, our study uncovered the mediating role of pragmatistic STEAM value and transformativistic value, suggesting that hands-on making self-efficacy can have an indirect effect on continuance intention through the mediating effect of pragmatistic STEAM value and transformativistic value. The study findings imply that hands-on making self-efficacy can enhance pragmatistic STEAM value and transformativistic value, thus fostering a strong continuance intention for STEAM contests. Finally, our findings offer insights into enhancing students’ commitment to STEAM contests. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2025.
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