Social Cognitive Influences on Scientific Research Careers among American Indians

描述(由申请人提供)：最近的报告强调了在临床研究(国家研究委员会，2006)和科学和技术工作人员(国家研究委员会，2011年)方面都严重缺乏多样性，美国印第安人和阿拉斯加原住民的代表性尤其不足。在吸引美国印第安人和阿拉斯加原住民学生进入行为和生物医学研究职业生涯方面，仍然存在一些戏剧性的问题。这个项目将通过跟踪五组学生来测试社会认知职业理论的纵向模型(Lent，Brown，&Hackett，1994)，以检验促进和阻碍美国印第安人学生学习毅力和职业成就的因素。被探索为学术和职业成功的预测因素包括个人和背景输入、学习经历、自我效能预期和结果预期，作为对实现行为和生物医学研究事业的兴趣、目标设定和采取的行动的预测因素。该项目还旨在检验预测美国印第安人行为和生物医学专业学生与美国印第安人非科学专业学生在学术毅力和职业成就方面取得成功的重要因素的差异。最后，该项目旨在调查美国印第安人学生进入研究密集型高等教育机构的途径。这些努力的目的是提供大量信息，作为干预措施的基础，提高美国印第安人学生在生物医学和行为科学研究领域的教育和找工作的参与度和毅力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Recent reports highlight a dramatic lack of diversity in both the clinical research (The National Research Council, 2006) and science and technology workforces (The National Research Council, 2011), with American Indian and Alaska Natives especially under-represented. Dramatic issues remain in attracting American Indian and Alaska Native students into behavioral and biomedical research careers. This project will examine factors that facilitate and impede academic perseverance and career achievement among American Indian students by tracking five cohorts of students to test a longitudinal model of Social Cognitive Career Theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994). Factors explored as predictors of academic and career success include personal and contextual inputs, learning experiences, self-efficacy expectations, and outcome expectations as predictors of interest in, goals set, and actions taken to achieve behavioral and biomedical research careers. The project also aims to examine differences in important factors predicting success in academic perseverance and career attainment for American Indian behavioral and biomedical science majors versus American Indian non-science majors. Finally, the project aims to examine pathways by which American Indian students enter a research-intensive institution of higher educations. These efforts are intended to provide substantial information upon which interventions can be based, to increase the participation and perseverance of American Indian students in education and job-seeking within biomedical and behavioral science research.