A first-principles calculation of the effective mass of electrons in quantum-well-like gap states induced by stacking faults and cubic inclusions in 4H- and 6H-SiC is performed, based on the density functional theory in the local density approximation. Our calculated effective electron masses for perfect crystals are in very good agreement with those previously determined both theoretically and experimentally. It has been found that electrons confined in the thin 3C-like regions have clearly heavier effective masses than that in perfect 3C-SiC.