GSE/RES: Peer Matters: When and how do peers influence young women's participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)?

智力优势：马萨诸塞州大学提出了一项使用刻板印象接种模型的研究，该模型提出学生对STEM的兴趣充其量是一种受约束的选择，受到这些学科学习环境的严重影响，特别是其中的社交代理（例如，同行、教师）。该模型预测，在STEM环境中增加与同性个体的接触对于增强年轻女性的学术自我概念对抗刻板印象威胁以及增加对STEM追求的兴趣至关重要。该项目将阐明同行的作用，调查是否在STEM设置同行的性别组成的变化差异影响妇女对STEM的态度，认同它，自我效能，性能和职业抱负;并确定潜在的过程，介导的预测效果。该项目通过从受控实验室实验和自然主义实地研究中寻找证据来解决一个重要的社会问题，并通过测试可能改善它的过程，从而弥合了“基础”（面向过程）和“应用”（面向问题）研究之间的鸿沟。更广泛的影响：研究、教育、教学和实践之间的共生关系是该项目的核心。STEM中代表性不足的学生将为研究过程提供信息，新的研究结果将用于通过演讲和研讨会教育K-12学校，学院，大学和国家组织的研究和从业者社区。新出现的数据将用于制定可在今后工作中进行实地检验的具体干预措施。

Intellectual Merit: The University of Massachusetts proposes a study using a Stereotype Inoculation Model which proposes that students' interest in STEM is, at best, a constrained choice heavily influenced by the environments in which these disciplines are learned, particularly the socializing agents in them (e.g., peers, teachers). This model predicts that increased contact with same-sex individuals in STEM environments is critical to inoculate young women's academic self-concept against stereotype threat and to increase interest in STEM pursuits. The project will shed light on the role of peers by investigating whether variations in the gender composition of peers in STEM settings differentially affect women's attitudes toward STEM, identification with it, self-efficacy, performance, and career aspirations; and identifying underlying processes that mediate the predicted effects. This project bridges the divide between "basic" (process-oriented) and "applied" (problem-oriented) research by seeking converging evidence from controlled lab experiments and naturalistic field studies to tackle an important social problem and by testing processes that might ameliorate it. Broader Impacts: The symbiotic relationships among research, education, teaching, and practice are at the heart of this proposal. Underrepresented students in STEM will inform the research process and emerging findings will be used to educate research and practitioner communities in K-12 schools, colleges, universities, and national organizations through presentations and workshops. The emerging data will be used to develop concrete interventions that may be field-tested in future work.