| Abstrakt: |
Purpose: This study examined and documented minority disability and health research leaders' experiences and perspectives on career development challenges and success strategies. Methods: A sample of 15 African American, American Indian or Alaskan Native, Latino, and Asian research leaders as key informants participated in the inquiry. Research team members and external project advisory panel members collaboratively developed the interview protocol consisting of 8 questions designed to elicit information about career development factors. Trained interviewers conducted semistructured telephone interviews to collect data. Verbatim transcripts of the audiotapes and participant demographics were the primary data that were analyzed using NVivo (Version 10.0). Results: Individual sociocultural challenges (e.g., cultural barriers, language/communication issues, family life issues, and limited collaboration opportunities), institutional research environmental concerns (e.g., bureaucracy, alienation, insufficient research support funds, and discrimination), and federal research agency policy and systems context--induced issues (e.g., limited mentorship opportunities, inadequate supply of minority research leaders and role models, unhealthy competition, and lack of equal opportunity) emerged among key informants' perspectives as important barriers. Identified success strategies included the need for early career investigators to build, expand, and use support networks, establish multidisciplinary collaborations, develop strong work ethic, enhance research skills (e.g., methodological and grant writing), and obtain capable mentorship. Conclusions: The aforementioned factors should be considered in the creation of new career development models and paradigms aimed at diversifying the scientific workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
