Research Initiation: Understanding Student Perceptions of Engineering Stress Culture (ESC)

压力是本科生的一个显著特征，对学生的表现，保留和经验有负面影响。以前的工作表明，工程专业的学生对自己的成绩和课程表现感到特别高的压力和焦虑。虽然这些研究已经确定了个人压力的触发因素，但目前的项目旨在揭示压力是如何被感知和传播的，作为工程领域的社会规范，以及对学生的影响。具体而言，工程压力文化项目的目标是了解学生如何看待压力作为工程学科文化的一部分，以及这如何影响他们在工程和工程师身份认同感的发展。认为压力是学习工程或成为工程师的一部分的看法不利于学生在工程学科的坚持和成功。了解学生对压力的看法将改善学生的体验，表现，并留住工程学科的优秀学生。工程压力文化项目的目标是描述压力的作用，并确定压力影响学生发展工程身份的方式。我们的研究将探讨整体的研究问题：工程压力文化（ESC）如何影响学生对工程学科的看法或他们对工程的认同程度？这个为期两年的项目将涉及定量调查和定性访谈，将共同阐明工程专业学生的压力，身份和包容之间的关系。研究的结果将被用来了解学生如何体验压力作为他们的工程教育的一部分，其对形成工程身份的影响。虽然个别学生的焦虑和压力来源已经记录在案，但学生对压力的看法是其学科文化的一部分，这一点还没有得到很好的理解。我们提出的研究将提高我们的理解，1）表征学生的感知ESC和专业之间的潜在差异和2）确定结构之间的关系，包括焦虑，压力，包容的看法，并与他们的工程专业的认同。了解学生认为什么是有压力的，以及学生如何将压力识别为项目文化的一个要素，将有助于制定干预措施来减轻学生压力。通过项目设计和管理来减轻压力的干预措施将有利于学生的招聘，保留和成功，所有这些都将支持扩大工程参与的努力。

Stress is a salient feature for undergraduate students that has negative effects on student performance, retention, and experience. Previous work has shown that engineering students perceive particularly high levels of stress and anxiety about their grades and course performance. While these studies have identified triggers of stress in individuals, the current project aims to unravel how stress is perceived and propagated as a social norm in engineering and the resulting impact on students. Specifically, the objective of the Engineering Stress Culture project is to understand how students perceive stress as part of the culture of engineering disciplines and how this impacts their development of a sense of inclusion in engineering and identity as engineers. The perception that stress is part of studying engineering or being an engineer is detrimental to student persistence and success in engineering disciplines. Understanding student perceptions of stress will improve student experience, performance, and retain talented students in the engineering disciplines.The goal of the Engineering Stress Culture project is to characterize the role of stress and identify the ways in which stress can impact students developing an engineering identity. Our study will explore the overall research question: How does the Engineering Stress Culture (ESC) impact students' perception of their engineering discipline or their level of identification with engineering? This two-year project will involve both quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews that will collectively elucidate the relationships between engineering student stress, identity, and inclusion. The results of the study will be used to understand how students experience stress as part of their engineering education and its impacts on forming an engineering identity. While sources of anxiety and stress for individual students have been documented, students' perception of stress being part of the culture of their discipline is not well-understood. Our proposed study will enhance our understanding by 1) characterizing students' perceptions of ESC and potential variation among majors and 2) determining the relationships between constructs including anxiety, stress, perceptions of inclusion, and identification with their engineering major. Understanding what students view as stressful and how students identify stress as an element of program culture will support the development of interventions to mitigate student stress. Interventions to reduce stress through program design and administration will benefit student recruitment, retention, and success, all of which will support efforts to broaden participation in engineering.