Research Initiation: Understanding Student Perceptions of Engineering Stress Culture (ESC)

对于本科生来说，压力是一个显著的特征，它对学生的表现、记忆和经历都有负面影响。以前的研究表明，工科学生对自己的成绩和课程表现感到特别高的压力和焦虑。虽然这些研究已经确定了个人压力的触发因素，但目前的项目旨在揭示压力是如何被视为一种社会规范并在工程中传播的，以及由此对学生的影响。具体来说，工程压力文化项目的目标是了解学生如何将压力视为工程学科文化的一部分，以及这如何影响他们对工程的包容性和作为工程师的认同感的发展。认为压力是学习工程或成为一名工程师的一部分的观念，不利于学生在工程学科中的坚持不懈和成功。了解学生对压力的感知将改善学生的体验和表现，并留住工程学科中有才华的学生。工程压力文化项目的目标是表征压力的作用，并确定压力如何影响学生形成工程认同。我们的研究将探索整个研究问题：工程压力文化(ESC)如何影响学生对其工程学科的感知或他们对工程的认同感？这个为期两年的项目将包括定量调查和定性访谈，共同阐明工科学生压力、身份认同和包容性之间的关系。这项研究的结果将被用来理解学生在工程教育中是如何经历压力的，以及它对形成工程身份的影响。虽然学生个体的焦虑和压力来源已经被记录在案，但学生对压力是其学科文化的一部分的看法并未得到很好的理解。我们提出的研究将通过1)表征学生对ESC的感知和专业之间的潜在差异，以及2)确定结构之间的关系，包括焦虑、压力、包容感知和对工程专业的认同，从而加强我们的理解。了解学生认为什么是有压力的，以及学生如何将压力识别为项目文化的一个元素，将有助于制定缓解学生压力的干预措施。通过项目设计和管理减少压力的干预措施将有利于学生的招生、留住和成功，所有这些都将支持扩大工程参与的努力。

Stress is a salient feature for undergraduate students that has negative effects on student performance, retention, and experience. Previous work has shown that engineering students perceive particularly high levels of stress and anxiety about their grades and course performance. While these studies have identified triggers of stress in individuals, the current project aims to unravel how stress is perceived and propagated as a social norm in engineering and the resulting impact on students. Specifically, the objective of the Engineering Stress Culture project is to understand how students perceive stress as part of the culture of engineering disciplines and how this impacts their development of a sense of inclusion in engineering and identity as engineers. The perception that stress is part of studying engineering or being an engineer is detrimental to student persistence and success in engineering disciplines. Understanding student perceptions of stress will improve student experience, performance, and retain talented students in the engineering disciplines.The goal of the Engineering Stress Culture project is to characterize the role of stress and identify the ways in which stress can impact students developing an engineering identity. Our study will explore the overall research question: How does the Engineering Stress Culture (ESC) impact students' perception of their engineering discipline or their level of identification with engineering? This two-year project will involve both quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews that will collectively elucidate the relationships between engineering student stress, identity, and inclusion. The results of the study will be used to understand how students experience stress as part of their engineering education and its impacts on forming an engineering identity. While sources of anxiety and stress for individual students have been documented, students' perception of stress being part of the culture of their discipline is not well-understood. Our proposed study will enhance our understanding by 1) characterizing students' perceptions of ESC and potential variation among majors and 2) determining the relationships between constructs including anxiety, stress, perceptions of inclusion, and identification with their engineering major. Understanding what students view as stressful and how students identify stress as an element of program culture will support the development of interventions to mitigate student stress. Interventions to reduce stress through program design and administration will benefit student recruitment, retention, and success, all of which will support efforts to broaden participation in engineering.