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- All Subjects: Academic Achievement
- Creators: Bernstein, Bianca L
- Creators: Kinnier, Richard
- Member of: ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
- Resource Type: Text
Description
In recent years, women have made significant advances in traditionally male occupations. Despite this progress, women are still underrepresented in many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Social cognitive career theory (SCCT) and the model of Achievement Related Choices are two widely accepted career development theories. Both theories highlight the importance of self-efficacy and personal factors in career development; yet, neither of them has considered the predictive power of a specific outcome expectation, anticipated work family conflict (AWFC), in relation to the career development of men and women in STEM undergraduate programs. The purpose of this study was to assess the incremental validity of AWFC over and above that of self-efficacy and role salience, in predicting educational and occupational aspirations of undergraduate students in STEM programs at a large southwestern university. The study provides evidence that the factor structure of the AWFC scale does not hold up with the undergraduate population, and this finding was seen as reason to combine the AWFC subscales into one composite score. In a hierarchical multiple regression higher levels of STEM self-efficacy predicted higher intentions to persist in STEM. Role salience, AWFC, and the gender-AWFC interaction were not significantly related to intentions to persist. Although the study does not provide evidence for the incremental validity of AWFC, it does suggest that work-family balance considerations that have been observed in mature STEM populations may not yet be salient for students at the undergraduate level.
ContributorsDawson, Amy (Author) / Bernstein, Bianca L (Thesis advisor) / Homer, Judith (Committee member) / Spanierman, Lisa (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Undeclared undergraduates participated in an experimental study designed to explore the impact of an Internet-delivered "growth mindset" training on indicators of women's engagement in science, engineering, technology, and mathematics ("STEM") disciplines. This intervention was hypothesized to increase STEM self-efficacy and intentions to pursue STEM by strengthening beliefs in intelligence as malleable ("IQ attitude") and discrediting gender-math stereotypes (strengthening "stereotype disbelief"). Hypothesized relationships between these outcome variables were specified in a path model. The intervention was also hypothesized to bolster academic achievement. Participants consisted of 298 women and 191 men, the majority of whom were self-identified as White (62%) and 18 years old (85%) at the time of the study. Comparison group participants received training on persuasive writing styles and control group participants received no training. Participants were randomly assigned to treatment, comparison, or control groups. At posttest, treatment group scores on measures of IQ attitude, stereotype disbelief, and academic achievement were highest; the effects of group condition on these three outcomes were statistically significant as assessed by analysis of variance. Results of pairwise comparisons indicated that treatment group IQ attitude scores were significantly higher than the average IQ attitude scores of both comparison and control groups. Treatment group scores on stereotype disbelief were significantly higher than those of the comparison group but not those of the control group. GPAs of treatment group participants were significantly higher than those of control group participants but not those of comparison group participants. The effects of group condition on STEM self-efficacy or intentions to pursue STEM were not significant. Results of path analysis indicated that the hypothesized model of the relationships between variables fit to an acceptable degree. However, a model with gender-specific paths from IQ attitude and stereotype disbelief to STEM self-efficacy was found to be superior to the hypothesized model. IQ attitude and stereotype disbelief were positively related; IQ attitude was positively related to men's STEM self-efficacy; stereotype disbelief was positively related to women's STEM self-efficacy, and STEM self-efficacy was positively related to intentions to pursue STEM. Implications and study limitations are discussed, and directions for future research are proposed.
ContributorsFabert, Natalie Shay (Author) / Bernstein, Bianca L. (Thesis advisor) / Kinnier, Richard (Committee member) / Dawes, Mary (Committee member) / Bekki, Jennifer (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Academic achievement among Asians has been widely recognized in the literature, but the costs of this success may be tied to significant mental health consequences. Three samples of undergraduate students in India were recruited from cities such as Chennai, Kerala, and Delhi totaling 608 (303 male, 301 females). Both online and in class recruitment occurred.
There were three main purposes of this study: 1) to construct a quantitative measure of parental pressure, 2) to evaluate whether self-esteem was a potential buffer of the negative impacts of parental pressure and academic stress, and 3) to understand better the factors impacting suicidality among adolescents in India by testing a path model of possible predictors suggested by the literature. Prevalence data of suicidal ideation and attempt history were also collected. Reporting on their experience over the past six months, 14.5% (n = 82) of the participants endorsed suicidal ideation and 12.3% (n = 69) of the participants admitted to having deliberately attempted to hurt or kill themselves.
Five constructs were explored in this study: parental pressure, academic stress, depression, suicidality, and self-esteem. The Parental Pressure for Success Scale, designed for this study, was used to measure parental pressure. The Educational Stress Scale-Adolescents was used to measure academic stress. The Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale was used to measure depressive symptomology. Two items from the Youth Self-Report Checklist were used as a measure of suicidality in the past six months. The Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale was used to measure global self-esteem.
Preliminary support for the reliability and validity of the Parental Pressure for Success Scale was found. While self-esteem was not a significant moderator in this study, it was a predictor of both stress and depression. Results of the path analysis indicated that parental pressure predicted academic stress, stress predicted depression, and depression predicted suicidality. Parental pressure indirectly predicted suicidality through academic stress and depression. Results were discussed in the context of cultural influences on study findings such as the central role of parents in the family unit, the impact of cultural valuing of education, collectivistic society, and the Hindu concept of dharma, or duty.
There were three main purposes of this study: 1) to construct a quantitative measure of parental pressure, 2) to evaluate whether self-esteem was a potential buffer of the negative impacts of parental pressure and academic stress, and 3) to understand better the factors impacting suicidality among adolescents in India by testing a path model of possible predictors suggested by the literature. Prevalence data of suicidal ideation and attempt history were also collected. Reporting on their experience over the past six months, 14.5% (n = 82) of the participants endorsed suicidal ideation and 12.3% (n = 69) of the participants admitted to having deliberately attempted to hurt or kill themselves.
Five constructs were explored in this study: parental pressure, academic stress, depression, suicidality, and self-esteem. The Parental Pressure for Success Scale, designed for this study, was used to measure parental pressure. The Educational Stress Scale-Adolescents was used to measure academic stress. The Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale was used to measure depressive symptomology. Two items from the Youth Self-Report Checklist were used as a measure of suicidality in the past six months. The Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale was used to measure global self-esteem.
Preliminary support for the reliability and validity of the Parental Pressure for Success Scale was found. While self-esteem was not a significant moderator in this study, it was a predictor of both stress and depression. Results of the path analysis indicated that parental pressure predicted academic stress, stress predicted depression, and depression predicted suicidality. Parental pressure indirectly predicted suicidality through academic stress and depression. Results were discussed in the context of cultural influences on study findings such as the central role of parents in the family unit, the impact of cultural valuing of education, collectivistic society, and the Hindu concept of dharma, or duty.
ContributorsSarma, Arti (Author) / Robinson-Kurpius, Sharon (Thesis advisor) / Kinnier, Richard (Committee member) / Homer, Judith (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The purpose of this investigation was to develop a testable integrative social cognitive model of critical consciousness (Freire, 1973) that explains the relationship between critical consciousness and intent to persist in college among underserved students, such as undocumented immigrants known as DREAMers. Three constructs based on theory (i.e., critical reflection, critical action, and political efficacy) as well as a new one (i.e., political outcome expectations) were conceptualized and tested through a framework inspired by Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994; Lent & Brown, 2013). A total of 638 college students participated in this study and reflected a spectrum of disadvantage and educational attainment, which included 120 DREAMers, 124 Latina/o students, 117 non-Latina/o minorities, and 277 non-Latina/o Whites. Goodness of fit tests showed support for the adequacy of using the new model with this diverse sample of students. Tests of structural invariance indicated that 10 relational paths in the model were invariant across student cultural groups, while 7 paths were differentiated. Most of the differences involved DREAMers and non-Latina/o White students. For DREAMers, critical action was positively related to intent to persist, while that relationship was negative for non-Latina/o Whites with legal status. Findings provide support to the structure of critical consciousness across cultural groups, highlight the key role that students’ supporters (i.e., important people in their life) play in their sociopolitical engagement and intent to persist, and suggest that political outcome expectations are related to higher persistence intention across all students.
ContributorsCadenas, German Andres (Author) / Bernstein, Bianca L (Thesis advisor) / Tracey, Terence (Committee member) / Spanierman, Lisa B (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017