CareerBound: Internet-Delivered Resilience Training to Increase the Persistence of Women Ph.D. Students in STEM Fields

智力价值这项研究正在探讨的问题是，刻意的弹性训练是否可以增强女性博士生在物理、工程和数学领域的毅力。在这些领域，女性在攻读博士学位的人数持续增加的情况下，仍表现出很高的流失率。一个基于互联网的多媒体增强计划正在开发中，并正在评估其在减少自然减员、加强多所大学选定领域的女博士生的职业抱负和个人技能方面的有效性。基于职业发展、自我效能感和经验支持的干预和教学工具的文献，这套个人和心理社会技能被称为“复原力技能”，并将加强这些技能的心理教育策略称为“复原力训练”。该课程设计的目的是让参与者接种疫苗，以应对女性在男性主导的STEM领域面临的人际关系、气候和角色挑战。它使用交互式关键事件技术创建了一个视听资料库，其中包括成功处理这种情况的著名资深女科学家和工程师的叙述。它提供具体的应对技能培训，包括决策、解决问题、认知重组、冲突管理、谈判和沟通。根据与控制条件和按学科估计的坚持基线的比较，培训将根据个人能力的衡量标准进行评估，如应对自我效能和人际交往技能，获得博士学位和进入STEM职业生涯的意向报告，以及学业坚持和学位完成记录。一个由国家科学、工程和教育研究界组成的专家咨询委员会正在加强私营部门的专业知识。广泛影响该项目为扩大STEM中代表严重不足的妇女的参与提供了一个潜在的新工具。它有可能覆盖全国数千名参加STEM博士项目的女性。有效性的证据将为IGERTS和其他博士改革倡议的实践提供参考。更广泛的研究成果将通过ASEE、AWIS、WEPAN、SWE、美国心理学协会、美国心理学会、美国教育研究协会和研究生院理事会等专业和学科协会传播，通过国家科学院网络和与IGERT、PFF和CID相关的网络，并通过适当的期刊发表出版物，如《工程教育杂志》、《科学与工程中的妇女和少数群体杂志》、《妇女心理学季刊》和《高等教育杂志》。这种基于网络的干预很容易且成本低廉，而且能够进行调整。

Intellectual MeritThe study is addressing the question of whether deliberate resilience training "delivered via the Internet" can strengthen women doctoral students' persistence in physical sciences, engineering and mathematics, fields where women display high rates of attrition even as their numbers in doctoral programs have continued to rise. An internet-based, multimedia-enhanced program is being developed and evaluated for its effectiveness in reducing attrition and strengthening career aspirations and personal skills of female doctoral students in selected fields at multiple universities. Grounded in the literatures of career development, self-efficacy, and empirically supported interventions and instructional tools, the set of personal and psychosocial skills are addressed as "resilience skills" and the psycho-educational strategy to strengthen these skills as "resilience training."The courseware is designed to inoculate participants against documented interpersonal, climate, and role challenges women face in male-dominated STEM fields. It uses interactive critical incident technology to create an audio-visual library of narratives by prominent senior women scientists and engineers who have handled such situations successfully. It provides training in specific coping skills, including decision-making, problem solving, cognitive restructuring, conflict management, negotiation, and communication.Based on comparisons both with control conditions and estimated persistence baselines by discipline, the training will be evaluated on measures of personal competence such as coping self-efficacy and interpersonal skills, reports of intentions to achieve the doctorate and enter STEM careers, and records of academic persistence and degree completion. An expert advisory council drawn from the national science, engineering, and educational research communities is augmenting the expertise of the PIs.Broader ImpactsThis project is providing a potential new tool for broadening participation among women seriously under-represented in STEM. It has the potential to reach all of the thousands of women who are in STEM doctoral programs across the nation. Evidence of effectiveness will inform practice for IGERTS and other doctoral reform initiatives. More broadly research results will be disseminated through professional and disciplinary associations such as the ASEE, AWIS, WEPAN, SWE, American Psychological Association, American Psychological Society, American Educational Research Association, and Council of Graduate Schools, and through National Academy networks and those associated with IGERT, PFF, and CID, and through publications in appropriate journals such as Journal of Engineering Education, Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, the Psychology of Women Quarterly, and the Journal of Higher Education. This web-based intervention is easily and inexpensively scalable, and capable of adaptation.