Generational Family Patterns, and Engineering Entry and Persistence: A Bowen Family Systems Approach

本项目将调查家庭对学生工程兴趣和坚持性的影响。这个项目的主要目标是扩大研究人员的专业知识，对家庭在工程领域的影响进行基础研究，以更好地了解促进学生坚持的因素。研究结果有可能通过开发和测试关于家庭关系对STEM学生持久性和专业选择的影响的理论，为更大规模的量化研究提供信息。调查结果将有助于STEM的政策制定，以及本科生的招生和留住规划工作。这项工作有可能加强学术支持服务，如咨询和就业中心，从而有助于在学生离开学位领域之前识别他们，并增加本科生在STEM领域的坚持性。调查者将使用鲍文家庭系统理论作为当前项目的概念框架。鲍文家庭系统理论将个人功能确定为家庭互动和关系模式的产物，这些模式可以代代相传。这种模式和关系可能包括文化影响或家庭态度，这两者都可能影响STEM的持久性。本项目将调查以下目标：1)开发基于访谈的探索性调查，考察优秀学生和任何多代家庭对他们在STEM领域的坚持性的影响；2)探索代际职业模式如何影响学生的心理健康；3)探索代际模式如何影响学生的学业坚持性；4)考察学生的心理健康和学术坚持性是如何相互影响的；以及5)通过自我反省的批判性视角来评估这些努力。本项目将采用混合方法，从15-20名典型工程专业学生中收集基于访谈的定性数据。这项研究将为榜样提出一个多方面的定义，超越成绩和学术成就。基因图谱将被用来收集每个学生的三代模式以及引导性的半结构化访谈，主题分析将被用来分析定性数据。在调查结果的基础上，将利用结构方程模型(SEM)进行数据分析，开发一项关于学生心理健康、家庭学业和职业选择的调查。该项目由NSF的STEM教育研究中的EHR核心研究能力建设计划(ECR：BCSER)支持，该计划旨在建设研究人员开展高质量STEM教育研究的能力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will investigate the influence of family on student interest and persistence in engineering. The overarching goal of this project is to expand the investigator’s expertise to conduct fundamental research on the influence of family in engineering fields to better understand facilitators of student persistence. The research findings have the potential to inform a larger quantitative study through developing and testing a theory about impacts of family relationships on STEM student persistence and choice of major. Findings will contribute to STEM policymaking, and undergraduate recruitment and retention programming efforts. This work has the potential to enhance academic support services such as counseling and career centers so that may help identify students before they leave the degree field and increase the persistence of undergraduate students in STEM fields.The investigator will utilize the Bowen family systems theory as a conceptual framework in the current project. Bowen family systems theory determines individual functionality as a product of family interactions and relationship patterns that are passed down through multiple generations. Such patterns and relationships can include cultural influences or family attitudes, both of which may influence STEM persistence. This project will investigate the following objectives: 1) Develop an exploratory interview-based inquiry that examines exemplar students and any multigenerational family influences to their persistence in STEM fields; 2) Explore how intergenerational career patterns impact student mental health; 3) Explore how intergenerational patterns impact student academic persistence; 4) Examine how student mental health and academic persistence influence each other; and 5) Evaluate the efforts through a critical lens of self-reflection. This project will utilize a mixed methods approach, collecting interview-based qualitative data from 15-20 exemplar engineering students. The study will propose a multifaceted definition for exemplar that is beyond grades and academic success. A genogram will be used to collect patterns of three generations for each student as well as leading semi-structured interviews, and a thematic analysis will be used to analyze the qualitative data. Built upon the findings, a survey will be developed on student mental health, family academic and career choices, using structural equation modeling (SEM) for data analysis. The project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER) program, which is designed to build investigators’ capacity to carry out high-quality STEM education research.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.