Career Decision-Making of Future Minority Biomedical Science Faculty

描述（由申请人提供）：非洲裔美国人，拉丁美洲人/a和美洲原住民学生进入生物医学科学博士课程的人数比以往任何时候都多。然而，他们在生物医学劳动力中的代表性仍然严重不足，特别是在教师一级。在过去的几十年里，NIH和NIGMS为多元化努力投入了大量的财力和人力资源，从而改善了博士项目，但更高水平的进展缺乏表明当前的干预措施需要研究更好的指导才能有效。先前的研究提出了许多解释和理论缺乏改进，包括受训人员准备不足，持续的歧视，以及年轻的少数民族学生主动决定不追求学术生涯。然而，没有研究已经取得了足够的权力，以检查这些或其他因素的相对贡献，以坚持对学术生涯。我们的年轻生物医学科学家的经验和职业决策的国家纵向研究，开始于2008年，使用年度深入访谈来跟踪180多名生物医学博士生的多元化群体，使其具有前所未有的力量来辨别和理解少数科学家保留和流失的因素。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4个理论“镜头”组成的框架进行解释：社会认知职业理论，身份发展，文化资本和实践社区。在即将到来的资助期间，该研究将：1）在选择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）将这些新数据与先前收集的有关研究生院前经历的信息联系起来，以确定这些经历对种族，民族和性别的差异影响; 3）使用这些数据和我们的理论框架提出，测试和扩展研究生院之前和期间的经历对职业决策的影响的假设; 4）利用研究结果的见解，对现有或新的干预措施提出修改，以促进职业发展，特别是实现学术生涯。由于被跟踪的学生人数，深入了解学生的经验和决定，以及研究的纵向性质，这项研究将提供一个真正独特的和前所未有的观点，种族，民族和性别对青年科学家的发展的影响。

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.