Understanding the Transient Nature of STEM Doctoral Students' Research Self-Efficacy Across Time: Considering the Role of Gender, Race, and First-Generation College Status.

Autor:	Litson K; Department of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences, Utah State University, Logan, UT, United States., Blaney JM; Department of Educational Leadership, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, United States., Feldon DF; Department of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences, Utah State University, Logan, UT, United States.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	Frontiers in psychology [Front Psychol] 2021 Jan 26; Vol. 12, pp. 617060. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Jan 26 (Print Publication: 2021).
DOI:	10.3389/fpsyg.2021.617060
Abstrakt:	Developing research self-efficacy is an important part of doctoral student preparation. Despite the documented importance of research self-efficacy, little is known about the progression of doctoral students' research self-efficacy over time in general and for students from minoritized groups. This study examined both within- and between-person stability of research self-efficacy from semester to semester over 4 years, focusing on doctoral students in biological sciences ( N = 336). Using random intercept autoregressive analyses, we evaluated differences in stability across gender, racially minoritized student status, and first-generation student status. Results showed similar mean levels of self-efficacy across demographic groups and across time. However, there were notable differences in between-person and within-person stability over time, specifically showing higher between-person and lower within-person stability for racially minoritized and first-generation students. These findings indicate that racially minoritized and first-generation students' research self-efficacy reports were less consistent from semester to semester. Such results may indicate that non-minoritized and continuing-generation students' experiences from semester to semester typically reinforce their beliefs about their own abilities related to conducting research, while such is not the case for racially minoritized nor first-generation students. Future research should examine what types of experiences impact self-efficacy development across doctoral study to offer more precise insights about factors that influence these differences in within-person stability. Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. (Copyright © 2021 Litson, Blaney and Feldon.)
Databáze:	MEDLINE
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