Career Decision-Making of Future Minority Biomedical Science Faculty

描述（由申请人提供）：非裔美国人、拉丁裔和美洲原住民学生进入生物医学科学博士课程的人数比以往任何时候都多。然而，她们在生物医学工作队伍中的代表性仍然大大不足，特别是在教员一级。在过去的几十年里，NIH和NIGMS为多样化的努力投入了大量的财政和人力资源，导致了博士项目的改进，但在更高层次上缺乏进展，这表明当前的干预措施需要更好的研究指导才能有效。先前的研究提出了许多关于缺乏改善的解释和理论，包括受训者准备不足，歧视持续存在，少数民族青年学生主动决定不从事学术事业。然而，没有研究获得足够的权力来检验这些或其他因素对学术生涯坚持的相对贡献。我们从2008年开始对年轻生物医学科学家的经历和职业决定进行全国纵向研究，每年对180多名生物医学博士生进行深度访谈，以识别和理解影响少数族裔科学家保留和流失的因素，这是前所未有的。访谈数据将使用定性研究方法进行研究，并使用由社会科学的4个理论“镜头”组成的框架进行解释：社会认知职业理论、身份发展、文化资本和实践社区。在即将到来的资助期内，该研究将：1)在选择论文实验室和完成研究生学业之间的关键时期，继续对学生进行年度深度访谈；2)将这些新数据与先前收集的有关研究生预科经历的信息联系起来，以确定这些经历在种族、民族和性别之间的差异影响；3)利用这些数据和我们的理论框架来提出、检验和扩展研究生院前和研究生院期间的经历对职业决策影响的假设；4)利用研究发现的见解，对现有的或新的干预措施提出修改，以促进职业发展，特别是对学术事业的成就。由于被跟踪的学生数量，对学生经历和决定的深入了解，以及研究的纵向性质，这项研究将为种族、民族和性别对年轻科学家发展的影响提供一个真正独特和前所未有的视角。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): African American, Latino/a and Native American students are entering PhD programs in the biomedical sciences in greater numbers than ever before. However, they remain greatly underrepresented in the biomedical workforce, especially at the faculty level. Over the past decades, NIH and NIGMS have committed great financial and human resources toward diversification efforts, leading to the PhD program improvements, but the lack of progress at higher levels suggests current interventions need better guidance from research to be effective. Prior studies have proposed many explanations and theories for the lack of improvement, including inadequate preparation of trainees, ongoing discrimination, and the active decision of young minority students not to pursue academic careers. However, no studies have achieved sufficient power to examine the relative contributions of these or other factors to persistence toward an academic career. Our National Longitudinal Study of the Experiences and Career Decisions of Young Biomedical Scientists, begun in 2008, uses annual in-depth interviews to follow a diverse group of more than 180 biomedical PhD students, giving it unprecedented power to discern and understand contributing factors to minority scientist retention and attrition. Interview data will be studied using qualitative research methods and interpreted using a framework composed of 4 theoretical 'lenses' from social science: social cognitive career theory, identity development, cultural capital and communities of practice. During this upcoming grant period, the Study will: 1) continue conducting annual, in-depth interviews with students during the crucial period between choosing a dissertation laboratory and completing graduate school; 2) connect these new data with previously collected information about pre- graduate school experiences in order to determine the differential impacts of these experiences across race, ethnicity, and gender; 3) use this data and our theoretical framework to propose, test, and extend hypotheses of the impact of experiences both before and during graduate school on career decision making, and; 4) utilize insights from the research findings to propose modifications to existing or new interventions to promote career progression, especially toward achievement of academic careers. As a result of the number of students being followed, the depth of insights into student experiences and decisions, and the longitudinal nature of the study, this research will provide a truly unique and unprecedented view into influences of race, ethnicity and gender on the development of young scientists. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: A deep, empirically grounded understanding of the student experience in contemporary science training will allow for evidence-based program design at every level of scientific training to increase the diversity of the scientific community and especially faculty researchers and teachers. Greater diversity in the professorate will provide better role models and mentors for the increasingly diverse US population, as well as increase the number of researchers who can identify with populations experiencing health disparities. The project's scale will lead to creation of a unique data repository which can become a valuable resource for ongoing study of the experiences of a diverse population of young scientists during their long progression from graduate student to contributing professional.