ArticlesFree Access

New Measures Assessing Predictors of Academic Persistence for Historically Underrepresented Racial/Ethnic Undergraduates in Science

Department of Medicine, Center for Women’s Health Research, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53715

Center for Women’s Health Research, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53715

WISCIENCE, Wisconsin Institute for Science Education and Community Engagement, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53715

Search for more papers by this author

Christine Pribbenow

Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53715

Search for more papers by this author

Ryan Hanke

Department of Educational Psychology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53715

Search for more papers by this author

, and

Christine Pfund

Department of Medicine, Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, Center for Women’s Health Research, and Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53715

Search for more papers by this author

Kenneth Gibbs, Monitoring Editor

Published Online:13 Oct 2017https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-01-0030

View article

Abstract

An important step in broadening participation of historically underrepresented (HU) racial/ethnic groups in the sciences is the creation of measures validated with these groups that will allow for greater confidence in the results of investigations into factors that predict their persistence. This study introduces new measures of theoretically derived factors emanating from social cognitive and social identity theories associated with persistence for HU racial/ethnic groups in science disciplines. The purpose of this study was to investigate: 1) the internal reliability and factor analyses for measures of research-related self-efficacy beliefs, sources of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and science identity; and 2) potential group differences in responses to the measures, examining the main and interaction effects of gender and race/ethnicity. Survey data came from a national sample of 688 undergraduate students in science majors who were primarily black/African American and Hispanic/Latino/a with a 2:1 ratio of females to males. Analyses yielded acceptable validity statistics and race × gender group differences were observed in mean responses to several measures. Implications for broadening participation of HU groups in the sciences are discussed regarding future tests of predictive models of student persistence and training programs to consider cultural diversity factors in their design.

Vol. 15, No. 3

September 01, 2016

Metrics

Downloads & Citations

Downloads: 1205

Citations: 38

History

Submitted: 13 January 2016

Revised: 25 May 2016

Accepted: 25 May 2016

Information

© 2016 A. Byars-Winston et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2016 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

We gratefully acknowledge the comments and support from Anne-Barrie Hunter, Robert W. Lent, and Nancy Thayer-Hart and help from ABRCMS staff, Clifford W. Houston, and Amy L. Chang. This study was supported with funding from the NIH under grant R01 GM094573 and funding from the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. This is independent research, and the views expressed here do not indicate endorsement by the sponsors.

PDF download