Women and members of many ethnic minority groups continue to be significantly underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and work settings. In this ...article, we propose that Gloria Anzaldúa’s concepts of nepantla and nepantleras/os can be used to enrich perspectives on underrepresentation among those studying, working, and persisting in STEM fields. We describe how diversity practices may fail to address and foster inclusion in STEM education and workplaces and link inclusion and belonging to engagement and retention in STEM. Recommendations are offered for combining top-down and bottom-up strategies providing information, awareness, and skills training in STEM environments, including recognizing and engaging the insights and experiences of nepantleras/os.
Understanding barriers to treatment-seeking among college students with suicidal ideation (SI) is critical to campus suicide prevention efforts. We used data from the Healthy Minds Study to test for ...gender and racial/ethnic differences in self-reported barriers to professional help-seeking among college students with past-year SI. Students (n = 1,817) with SI who reported no past-year care indicated their reasons from a list of 25 attitudes, experiences, and structural factors. We examined differences in reported barriers to mental health services between men and women and between Asian, Black, Latino, and White students. There were significant gender differences for seven of the barriers, including that men were more likely to report a preference to deal with issues on their own. There were significant racial-ethnic group differences for 14 barriers. Implications for suicide prevention practices and policies are provided, including targeted group outreach tailored to the most salient barriers to treatment.
College students experiencing psychological distress are at risk for negative academic outcomes. The Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms-62 (CCAPS-62) is a symptom inventory ...designed for and widely used in college counseling centers. However, the relationships between the CCAPS-62 and functional outcomes in the college environment have not been examined. This study examined the validity of the CCAPS-62 in predicting term grade point average (GPA) and dropout. Data from 297 first-year students at a university’s counseling center were analyzed using multiple regression to determine associations between CCAPS-62 subscales, term GPA, and dropout within the subsequent three academic years. Results show that academic distress was predictive of all academic outcomes in the expected directions, social anxiety was associated with higher term GPA and retention, and hostility was associated with lower term GPA and dropout. Results demonstrated support for the instrument’s predictive validity in the identification of students at academic risk.
The aim of this study was to examine the effects of Career Information System (CIS) on ninth-grade student’s vocational skills self-efficacy, outcome expectations, work hope, and career ...decision-making difficulties. CIS is a computer-based career intervention designed to help users become more knowledgeable about themselves and occupational options with career planning support. At the midpoint of fall semester, intervention participants (n = 194) were assessed before and after a CIS intervention administered during their health class, while ninth-grade students who were not in the health class (n = 191) served as a nonrandomized control group. Relative to control participants, intervention participants had higher work hope and lower career decision-making difficulties associated with inconsistent information and lack of information. The effects of the intervention did not vary as a function of gender or socioeconomic status. Findings contribute to the scant literature assessing the effects of computer-based career interventions for high school students.
This article describes the rationale, development, delivery, and evaluation strategy of a pilot career intervention program for immigrant Latina/o high school students: Advocating for Latina/o ...Achievement in School. This innovative intervention aims to prevent dropout and to promote academic success and college and career readiness through a combination of academic support and enhancing critical consciousness. Shorter term goals include increasing school-related self-efficacy expectations, school connectedness, school engagement, and critical consciousness. We describe the theoretical and empirical basis for the intervention components, and how they attend to dimensions of immigrant Latina/o students’ career development. We describe program logistics, outcomes, strengths, challenges, and lessons learned from delivering the intervention. We highlight unique features of the program and suggest its relevance to career education efforts in other school and national contexts in which immigrant students face racism and inequities.
We test two models in which Latina/o students’ school connectedness partially mediates the relationship between barriers (discrimination experiences at school and other educational barriers, ...respectively) and thoughts of dropping out of high school. Results of a moderated mediator analyses in a sample of 896 Latina/o high school students were consistent with hypotheses. Latina/o students who reported greater frequency of discrimination experiences and those who reported greater frequency of other barriers that affect how they are doing in school were more likely to have thoughts of dropping out, and these relationships were attenuated by school connectedness. A hierarchical regression indicated that discrimination experiences, other educational barriers, and school connectedness each contributed unique variance to thoughts of dropping out. Findings highlight the salience of efforts to reduce discrimination in schools and enhance school connectedness as a potential protective factor for Latina/o youth. Implications for dropout prevention are discussed.
The authors tested the effectiveness of 2 group career interventions for 73 battered women who were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 treatment conditions or a wait-list control group. Both interventions ...included the 5 most effective career intervention components identified by
S. D. Brown and N. E. Krane (2000)
, and 1 of the interventions also was designed to enhance critical consciousness (i.e., empowerment for self-protection and awareness of domestic violence impact;
P. Freire, 1970
;
I. Martín-Baró, 1994
). Relative to controls, standard participants had higher career-search self-efficacy, and standard-plus participants had higher critical consciousness at posttest. At follow-up, standard-plus participants had higher critical consciousness scores and made more progress toward goal achievement than standard participants.
Existing research with gay dads has focused almost exclusively on those in the upper middle-class. Given the financial barriers to gay fatherhood and that parenting and work experiences often differ ...based on class, research at the work-family interface with working-class gay dads holds promise for advancing the field of vocational psychology. Using the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT) as a framework, the present study explored work and family experiences with working-class gay dads living on the West Coast of the United States. We collected and analyzed data using a narrative inquiry methodology, which involved a three-stage interview process, co-construction of narratives with participants, and generation of seven themes (e.g., Importance of Both Structural Economic Support and Structural LGBTQ+ Support, Many Valid Ways to Form Families). Situating these findings within the PWT model, we demonstrate how economic constraints and marginalization shaped these dads' experiences of decent paid (and unpaid) work, and how their adaptability and volition buffered these impacts and offered pathways to meaningful roles as workers and fathers. The stories of working-class gay dads and related themes counter the grand career narrative and provide helpful guidance for structural recommendations that attend to LGBTQ+ inclusion and more equitable access to decent work.
•Work and family experiences of working-class gay fathers are shaped by class, gender, and sexuality.•Narrative inquiry methodology informed the multiple interview format, data analysis, and co-creation of participant stories.•Results include narratives, themes, and recommendations informed by participant feedback.•Psychology of Working Theory frames findings and implications for vocational psychology researchers and practitioners.
We describe a Dreamer Ally training provided to staff and faculty on a university campus and present results of a pilot evaluation of this training. The Dreamer Ally training was designed to (a) ...increase university faculty and staff awareness, understanding, and self-efficacy for working with Dreamer students and (b) stimulate action to make the campus more responsive to the challenges and contributions of Dreamer students. For the purpose of this study we define Dreamer students as inclusive of undocumented students, students with the temporary protection of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), students who qualify for the state’s tuition equity program, and students from mixed legal status families. Study goals were to describe the training, gather pilot data on participant learning goals, post-training satisfaction and self-efficacy for supporting Dreamer students, and generate participant feedback about utility of training components and their plans for subsequent action. Participants completed questionnaires before and after the training. Responses to open-ended questions indicated that most participants attended in order to learn how to better support Dreamer students. Paired samples (pre and post) t-tests indicated significantly higher self-efficacy for supporting Dreamer students at posttest. Participant satisfaction with the training was high and found the information session content and working through different Dreamer student scenarios most useful. Action plans included changing program or unit websites to be more inclusive of Dreamers. Limitations include the absence of a control group. Findings can inform institutional efforts to raise faculty and staff awareness of and responsiveness to the challenges facing Dreamer students.
Latinx individuals have been disproportionately affected during the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the spread of SARS-CoV-2. It is imperative to evaluate newly developed preventive interventions to ...assess their effect on COVID-19 health disparities.
To examine the effectiveness of a culturally tailored outreach intervention designed to increase SARS-CoV-2 testing rates among Latinx populations.
In this cluster randomized trial performed from February 1 to August 31, 2021, in community settings in 9 Oregon counties, 38 sites were randomized a priori (19 to the community health promoters intervention and 19 to outreach as usual wait-listed controls). Thirty-three sites were activated. A total of 394 SARS-CoV-2 testing events were held and 1851 diagnostic samples collected, of which 919 were from Latinx persons.
A culturally informed outreach program was developed that made use of promotores de salud (community health promoters) to increase Latinx SARS-CoV-2 testing. Strategies addressed barriers by disseminating information on testing events in English and Spanish, mitigating misinformation, and increasing trust.
The primary outcomes were the count of sample tests from Latinx persons and the sampled proportion of the Latinx populace. Site-level covariates included census tract Latinx populace, nativity (number of US-born individuals per 100 population), median age, and income inequality. Time-varying covariates included number of new weekly SARS-CoV-2-positive cases and percentage of vaccine coverage at the county level.
A total of 15 clusters (sites) were randomized to the control group and 18 to the community health promoters group. A total of 1851 test samples were collected, of which 995 (53.8%) were from female participants and 919 (49.6%) were from Latinx individuals. The intervention tested 3.84 (95% CI, 2.47-5.97) times more Latinx individuals per event than controls (incident rate ratio, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.46-1.34; Cohen d = 0.74; P < .001). The intervention was associated with a 0.28 increase in the proportion of Latinx populace being tested compared with control sites for the dependent variable scaled as the proportion of the Latinx populace ×100, or a 0.003 proportion of the raw populace count. The use of a standardized scaling of the proportion of Latinx individuals showed that the relative percentage increase was 0.53 (95% CI, 0.21-0.86) in the intervention sites compared with controls, representing a medium effect size.
To our knowledge, this was the first randomized evaluation of an outreach intervention designed to increase SARS-CoV-2 testing among Latinx populations. Findings could be used to implement strategies to reduce other health disparities experienced by these groups.
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04793464.
