Career Decision-Making of Future Minority Biomedical Science Faculty

描述(由申请者提供)：非洲裔美国人、拉丁裔/a和美洲原住民学生正在比以往任何时候都更多地进入生物医学科学的博士课程。然而，他们在生物医学劳动力中的代表性仍然很低，特别是在教职员工层面。在过去的几十年里，NIH和NIGMS为多样化努力投入了大量的财力和人力资源，导致了博士项目的改进，但在更高级别缺乏进展表明，当前的干预措施需要从研究中获得更好的指导才能有效。以前的研究提出了许多解释和理论，解释了缺乏改进的原因，包括受训人员准备不足、持续存在的歧视以及年轻的少数族裔学生积极决定不从事学术事业。然而，还没有研究达到足够的力量来检验这些因素或其他因素对坚持学术生涯的相对贡献。我们于2008年开始的关于年轻生物医学科学家的经历和职业决策的全国纵向研究，使用年度深入访谈来跟踪180多名生物医学博士生的不同群体，使其具有前所未有的能力来识别和理解导致少数族裔科学家留住和流失的因素。访谈数据将使用定性研究方法进行研究，并使用由社会科学的四个理论“镜头”组成的框架进行解读：社会认知职业理论、身份发展、文化资本和实践社区。在即将到来的拨款期间，这项研究将：1)在选择学位论文实验室和完成研究生院之间的关键时期，继续对学生进行年度深入访谈；2)将这些新数据与之前收集的关于研究生学习经历的信息联系起来，以确定这些经历在种族、民族和性别上的不同影响；3)使用这些数据和我们的理论框架来提出、测试和扩展关于研究生之前和期间的经历对职业决策影响的假设，以及；4)利用研究结果的洞察力，对现有或新的干预措施提出修改建议，以促进职业发展，特别是在实现学术职业生涯方面。由于被跟踪的学生数量、对学生经历和决定的洞察深度以及研究的纵向性质，这项研究将为种族、民族和性别对青年科学家发展的影响提供一个真正独特和史无前例的视角。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): African American, Latino/a and Native American students are entering PhD programs in the biomedical sciences in greater numbers than ever before. However, they remain greatly underrepresented in the biomedical workforce, especially at the faculty level. Over the past decades, NIH and NIGMS have committed great financial and human resources toward diversification efforts, leading to the PhD program improvements, but the lack of progress at higher levels suggests current interventions need better guidance from research to be effective. Prior studies have proposed many explanations and theories for the lack of improvement, including inadequate preparation of trainees, ongoing discrimination, and the active decision of young minority students not to pursue academic careers. However, no studies have achieved sufficient power to examine the relative contributions of these or other factors to persistence toward an academic career. Our National Longitudinal Study of the Experiences and Career Decisions of Young Biomedical Scientists, begun in 2008, uses annual in-depth interviews to follow a diverse group of more than 180 biomedical PhD students, giving it unprecedented power to discern and understand contributing factors to minority scientist retention and attrition. Interview data will be studied using qualitative research methods and interpreted using a framework composed of 4 theoretical 'lenses' from social science: social cognitive career theory, identity development, cultural capital and communities of practice. During this upcoming grant period, the Study will: 1) continue conducting annual, in-depth interviews with students during the crucial period between choosing a dissertation laboratory and completing graduate school; 2) connect these new data with previously collected information about pre- graduate school experiences in order to determine the differential impacts of these experiences across race, ethnicity, and gender; 3) use this data and our theoretical framework to propose, test, and extend hypotheses of the impact of experiences both before and during graduate school on career decision making, and; 4) utilize insights from the research findings to propose modifications to existing or new interventions to promote career progression, especially toward achievement of academic careers. As a result of the number of students being followed, the depth of insights into student experiences and decisions, and the longitudinal nature of the study, this research will provide a truly unique and unprecedented view into influences of race, ethnicity and gender on the development of young scientists.