Generational Family Patterns, and Engineering Entry and Persistence: A Bowen Family Systems Approach

这个项目将调查家庭对学生对工程的兴趣和坚持的影响。该项目的总体目标是扩大调查员的专业知识，对家庭在工程领域的影响进行基础研究，以更好地了解学生坚持的促进因素。研究结果有可能通过开发和测试家庭关系对STEM学生持久性和专业选择的影响的理论，为更大规模的定量研究提供信息。调查结果将有助于STEM政策制定，本科生招聘和保留编程工作。这项工作有可能加强学术支持服务，如咨询和职业中心，使可能有助于确定学生之前，他们离开学位领域，并增加本科生在STEM领域的持久性。研究人员将利用鲍文家庭系统理论作为当前项目的概念框架。Bowen家庭系统理论将个人功能确定为通过多代传承的家庭互动和关系模式的产物。这种模式和关系可能包括文化影响或家庭态度，这两者都可能影响STEM的持久性。本项目将研究以下目标：1）开发一个探索性的基于访谈的调查，检查示范学生和任何多代家庭的影响，他们在STEM领域的持久性; 2）探索代际职业模式如何影响学生的心理健康; 3）探索代际模式如何影响学生的学术持久性; 4）检查学生的心理健康和学术持久性如何相互影响;和5）通过自反射的临界透镜来评估所做的努力。该项目将采用混合方法，从15-20名示范工程专业学生中收集基于访谈的定性数据。这项研究将提出一个多方面的定义，超越了成绩和学术成就的榜样。本研究将使用基因图来收集每一位学生的三代模式，以及引导性的半结构式访谈，并使用主题分析来分析定性数据。根据调查结果，将制定一项关于学生心理健康、家庭学业和职业选择的调查，使用结构方程模型（SEM）进行数据分析。该项目由NSF的EHR Core Research Building Capacity in STEM Education Research（ECR：BCSER）项目提供支持，该项目旨在培养研究人员开展高质量STEM教育研究的能力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will investigate the influence of family on student interest and persistence in engineering. The overarching goal of this project is to expand the investigator’s expertise to conduct fundamental research on the influence of family in engineering fields to better understand facilitators of student persistence. The research findings have the potential to inform a larger quantitative study through developing and testing a theory about impacts of family relationships on STEM student persistence and choice of major. Findings will contribute to STEM policymaking, and undergraduate recruitment and retention programming efforts. This work has the potential to enhance academic support services such as counseling and career centers so that may help identify students before they leave the degree field and increase the persistence of undergraduate students in STEM fields.The investigator will utilize the Bowen family systems theory as a conceptual framework in the current project. Bowen family systems theory determines individual functionality as a product of family interactions and relationship patterns that are passed down through multiple generations. Such patterns and relationships can include cultural influences or family attitudes, both of which may influence STEM persistence. This project will investigate the following objectives: 1) Develop an exploratory interview-based inquiry that examines exemplar students and any multigenerational family influences to their persistence in STEM fields; 2) Explore how intergenerational career patterns impact student mental health; 3) Explore how intergenerational patterns impact student academic persistence; 4) Examine how student mental health and academic persistence influence each other; and 5) Evaluate the efforts through a critical lens of self-reflection. This project will utilize a mixed methods approach, collecting interview-based qualitative data from 15-20 exemplar engineering students. The study will propose a multifaceted definition for exemplar that is beyond grades and academic success. A genogram will be used to collect patterns of three generations for each student as well as leading semi-structured interviews, and a thematic analysis will be used to analyze the qualitative data. Built upon the findings, a survey will be developed on student mental health, family academic and career choices, using structural equation modeling (SEM) for data analysis. The project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER) program, which is designed to build investigators’ capacity to carry out high-quality STEM education research.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.