CAREER: Advancing STEM Persistence among Graduate Women of Color through an Examination of Institutional Contributors and Deterrents to Mental Health

职业：通过检查机构贡献者和心理健康阻碍因素，促进有色人种女性研究生 STEM 的坚持

• 批准号: 2048018
• 负责人: Kerrie Wilkins-Yel
• 金额: $ 80.68万
• 依托单位: University of Massachusetts Boston
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-07-01 至 2026-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2048018&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Advancing; STEM; Persistence; among

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a National Science Foundation-wide activity that offers awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education, and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. This project aims to serve the national interest by addressing the inequitable representation of graduate Women of Color (WoC) (i.e., Black/African American, Latina, Indigenous, and Asian American women) in STEM. This continued underrepresentation of WoC has been attributed, in part, to negative encounters in STEM characterized by alienating and marginalizing program environments. Yet, existing efforts designed to broaden participation in STEM have largely focused on academic and professional challenges that influence STEM persistence, with little attention to the psychological toll of persisting in STEM environments rife with systemic oppression (e.g., gendered racism). Research has linked racism-related stress, perceived discrimination, microaggressions, minority status stress, and isolation to many negative psychological outcomes such as depression, anxiety, and stress. Furthermore, increased psychological distress has been shown to negatively influence academic and research productivity. Evidently, mental health and distress are crucial, yet unexamined, factors that can influence STEM persistence. To address this knowledge gap and improve the representation of graduate WoC in STEM, this project seeks to understand the psychological toll that results from navigating negative STEM environments. It will also identify specific institutional factors that either mitigate or perpetuate the marginalizing encounters that affect graduate WoC’s mental health.The project employs a two-phase, multi-methodological, longitudinal, and experimental approach grounded in well-established theories from social and counseling psychology. Phase I will obtain rich insights about the contributors and deterrents to STEM graduate WoC’s mental health using three complementary studies: a sequential mixed-methodological nationwide examination of the state of mental health among graduate WoC in STEM (Study 1); and a series of semi-structured critical incident interviews with both current graduate WoC in STEM as well as those who have prematurely discontinued their STEM doctoral pursuits to understand supportive (Study 2) and unsupportive (Study 3) faculty behaviors that affect the respondents’ mental health. Phase II will build on the insights gained in Phase I to design and evaluate an innovative and transformative culturally responsive wellness intervention for graduate WoC (Study 4). The output of this research will serve the following educational goals: (1) cultivate awareness and change among STEM faculty to combat racist and marginalizing encounters; (2) establish a scalable and sustainable restorative wellness program designed to promote graduate WoC’s STEM persistence in a manner that is wholesome, enriching, and centered on thriving; and (3) leverage cross-disciplinary partnerships with counseling professionals to design an innovative and culturally responsive graduate curriculum. This effort will increase our understanding of the ways in which marginalizing STEM encounters negatively affect graduate WoC’s mental health and, in turn, their persistence to degree completion.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

学院早期职业发展(Career)计划是国家科学基金会范围内的一项活动，旨在为有潜力在研究和教育中充当学术榜样并在其部门或组织的使命中领导进步的早期教师提供奖励。该项目旨在通过解决有色人种毕业生妇女(即黑人/非裔美国人、拉丁裔、土著和亚裔美国人妇女)在STEM中所占比例不平等的问题，为国家利益服务。世界卫生组织的代表性持续偏低的部分原因是，在STEM中遇到了消极的遭遇，其特点是疏远和边缘化了方案环境。然而，现有的旨在扩大对STEM的参与的努力主要集中在影响STEM持久性的学术和专业挑战上，很少注意到在充斥着系统性压迫(例如，性别歧视)的STEM环境中坚持下去的心理代价。研究已经将与种族主义相关的压力、感知到的歧视、微攻击、少数民族地位压力和孤立与许多负面心理结果联系在一起，如抑郁、焦虑和压力。此外，越来越多的心理困扰已被证明会对学术和研究效率产生负面影响。显然，心理健康和痛苦是影响STEM毅力的关键因素，但尚未经过检验。为了解决这一知识鸿沟并改善毕业生WoC在STEM中的代表性，本项目试图了解在消极的STEM环境中导航所产生的心理损失。它还将确定特定的制度因素，以缓解或永久保持影响毕业生WOC心理健康的边缘化遭遇。该项目采用两阶段、多方法、纵向和实验方法，以社会心理学和咨询心理学的成熟理论为基础。第一阶段将通过三项补充研究获得关于STEM毕业生WoC心理健康的贡献因素和阻碍因素的丰富见解：对STEM研究生WoC心理健康状况的顺序混合方法全国性检查(研究1)；以及对STEM当前毕业生WoC以及提前停止STEM博士学习的教师进行一系列半结构化关键事件访谈，以了解影响受访者心理健康的支持性(研究2)和不支持性(研究3)教职员工行为。第二阶段将建立在第一阶段获得的洞察力的基础上，设计和评估一种创新的、具有变革性的、响应文化的健康干预措施，以供研究生沃森国际(研究4)使用。这项研究的成果将服务于以下教育目标：(1)培养STEM教员的意识和变革，以打击种族主义和边缘化的遭遇；(2)建立可扩展和可持续的恢复性健康计划，旨在以健康、丰富和以繁荣为中心的方式促进研究生的STEM坚持；以及(3)利用与咨询专业人员的跨学科合作伙伴关系，设计创新的、响应文化的研究生课程。这一努力将增加我们对边缘化STEM遇到的方式的理解，这些方式对毕业生WoC的心理健康产生负面影响，并反过来影响他们对学位完成的执着。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。