Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2018

DOI

10.1016/j.cedpsych.2018.03.001

Publication Title

Contemporary Educational Psychology

Volume

53

Pages

181-195

Abstract

The current study reports on the efficacy of a multi-faceted motivationally designed undergraduate enrichment summer program for supporting science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) persistence. Structural equation modeling was used to compare summer program participants (n = 186), who participated in the program between their first and second years in college, to a propensity score matched comparison sample (n = 401). Participation in the summer program positively predicted science motivation (self-efficacy, task value), assessed eight months after the end of the program (second year in college). The summer enrichment program was also beneficial for science persistence variables, as evidenced by significant direct and indirect effects of the program on science course completion during students’ third year of college and students’ intentions to pursue a science research career assessed during the third year of college. In general, the program was equally beneficial for all participants, but ancillary analyses indicated added benefits with respect to task value for students with relatively lower prior science achievement during the first year of college and with respect to subsequent science course taking for males. Implications for developing effective interventions to reduce the flow of individuals out of STEM fields and for translating motivational theory into practice are discussed.

Rights

© 2018 Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved.

This manuscript version is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Original Publication Citation

Linnenbrink-Garcia, L., Perez, T., Barger, M. M., Wormington, S. V., Godin, E., Snyder, K. E., Robinson, K., Sarkar, A., Richman, L. S., & Schwartz-Bloom, R. (2018). Repairing the leaky pipeline: A motivationally supportive intervention to enhance persistence in undergraduate science pathways. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 53, 181-195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2018.03.001

ORCID

0000-0002-2008-2555 (Perez)

Share

COinS