Collaborative Research: Sociopolitical Development and STEM Motivation in African American Youth

科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)方面的种族差异已经持续了几十年。该项目通过三个广泛目标评估非裔美国学生对种族不平等的认识以及这种意识与学生的STEM动机之间的关系：(1)调查学生在过渡到高中期间科学和数学动机的变化；(2)衡量高中过渡期间青年对种族不平等知识的变化，以及这种知识是否与STEM课程选择的变化有关；以及(3)研究非裔美国父母与种族有关的经历和信念对他们对子女的社会化及其子女的STEM动机的影响。除了有助于关于种族不平等、动机和成就结果的科学理论之外，这项研究还有可能为针对青少年和父母的种族不平等知识的干预努力以及家庭如何促进年轻人在STEM领域取得成功提供信息。直接影响包括培训来自代表性不足背景的本科生和研究生，以及为学生和家长创建一个群体间对话计划，旨在提高他们与种族有关的学术意识。参与者是380名非洲裔美国青年及其父母和教师，他们在青年的中学时期已经每年参加这个以STEM为重点的研究项目。在该项目的新阶段，学生、家长和教师将在9年级和10年级时完成调查。需要评估的关键假设是：(1)已经在中学就有不平等意识的青少年的科学和数学动机最强，他们的动机信念强调代理和有效性；(2)随着时间的推移，学生对种族成就差距的意识会增强，系统归因(例如，将成就差距归因于教师偏见)将导致更大的STEM持久力和成功；(3)父母对种族不平等的认识将与种族自豪感社会化和为子女接受歧视做好准备呈正相关；(4)父母的种族社会化、作业监控、学校参与和鼓励青少年的课外STEM活动将与青少年的STEM成功正相关。我们将使用潜在增长曲线模型来检验这些假设，评估随时间的变化，以及早期测量(例如，学生和父母在初中时对成就差距的认识)预测父母社交行为和学生STEM动机和成功的变化的方式。这些结果将为我们的小组间对话项目提供信息，该项目将与密歇根大学和加州州立大学的顾问合作设计。

Racial disparities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have persisted for decades. This project assesses African American students' awareness of racial inequities and how such awareness is related to students' STEM motivation through three broad aims: (1) to investigate changes in students' science and math motivation as they transition to high school; (2) to measure changes in youth's knowledge of racial inequities across the high school transition and whether such knowledge is related to changes in STEM course-taking; and (3) to examine the influences of African American parents' race-related experiences and beliefs on their socialization of their children and on their children's STEM motivation. In addition to contributing to scientific theory regarding racial inequalities, motivation, and achievement outcomes, the study has the potential to inform intervention efforts that would target adolescents' and parents' knowledge of racial inequities and ways that families might foster youth's success in STEM domains. Immediate impacts include training of undergraduate and graduate students from underrepresented backgrounds and creation of an intergroup dialogue program for students and parents aimed at increasing their race-related academic consciousness.Participants are 380 African American youth and their parents and teachers who have already participated annually in this STEM-focused research project during the youth's middle school years. In this new stage of the project, students, parents, and teachers will complete surveys when youth are in Grades 9 and 10. Key hypotheses to be evaluated are (1) science and math motivation will be strongest among youth who already in middle school held an awareness of inequities, and whose motivational beliefs emphasize agency and efficacy; (2) students' awareness of racial achievement gaps will increase over time, and system-blame attributions (e.g., attributing achievement gaps to teacher bias) will lead to greater STEM persistence and success; (3) parents' knowledge of racial inequality will be positively associated with racial pride socialization and preparation of their children for discrimination; and (4) parents' racial socialization, homework monitoring, school involvement, and encouragement of youth's extracurricular STEM activities will be positively associated with youth's STEM success. We will test these hypotheses using latent growth curve modeling, assessing change over time and ways in which earlier measures (e.g., students' and parents' awareness of achievement gaps when youth were in middle school) predict change in parents' socializing behaviors and students' STEM motivation and success. These results will inform our intergroup dialogue program, which will be designed with the collaboration of consultants at the University of Michigan and California State University.