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

教师早期职业发展（Career）计划是一项国家科学基金会范围内的活动，为有潜力在研究和教育中成为学术榜样，并在其部门或组织的使命中引领进步的早期职业教师提供奖励。该项目旨在通过解决有色人种（即黑人/非裔美国人，拉丁裔，土著和亚裔美国妇女）在STEM中的不平等代表性，为国家利益服务。WoC的持续代表性不足部分归因于STEM中以疏远和边缘化项目环境为特征的负面遭遇。然而，现有旨在扩大STEM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，很少关注在充满系统性压迫（例如性别种族主义）的STEM环境中持续存在的心理代价。研究已经将与种族主义相关的压力、感知歧视、微侵犯、少数民族地位压力和孤立与许多负面心理结果（如抑郁、焦虑和压力）联系起来。此外，心理困扰的增加已被证明会对学术和研究生产力产生负面影响。显然，心理健康和痛苦是影响STEM持久性的关键因素，但尚未得到研究。为了解决这一知识差距并提高毕业生WoC在STEM中的代表性，该项目旨在了解在消极的STEM环境中导航所造成的心理损失。它还将确定具体的制度因素，这些因素要么减轻，要么使影响WoC毕业生心理健康的边缘化遭遇长期存在。该项目采用两阶段、多方法、纵向和实验的方法，以社会和咨询心理学的成熟理论为基础。第一阶段将通过三项互补研究获得有关STEM毕业生WoC心理健康的影响因素和阻碍因素的丰富见解：对STEM毕业生WoC心理健康状况的连续混合方法全国检查（研究1）；以及一系列半结构化的关键事件访谈，访谈对象包括当前的STEM研究生WoC，以及那些过早停止STEM博士学业的人，以了解影响受访者心理健康的支持性（研究2）和非支持性（研究3）教师行为。第二阶段将在第一阶段获得的见解的基础上，为研究生WoC设计和评估一种创新和变革的文化响应健康干预措施（研究4）。本研究的成果将服务于以下教育目标：(1)培养STEM教师的意识和改变，以对抗种族主义和边缘化遭遇；(2)建立一个可扩展和可持续的恢复性健康计划，旨在以健康、丰富和以蓬勃发展为中心的方式促进毕业生WoC的STEM坚持；(3)利用与咨询专业人员的跨学科合作关系，设计创新和文化响应的研究生课程。这一努力将增加我们对边缘化STEM遭遇对毕业生WoC心理健康产生负面影响的方式的理解，进而影响他们坚持完成学位。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.