Stereotype Threat Undermining the Persistence of Racial Minority

Stereotype Threat: Undermining the Persistence of Racial Minority Freshmen in the Sciences Mitchell J. Chang, Kevin Eagan, Monica Lin, Sylvia Hurtado UCLA AERA April 16, 2009

Problem ¡ ¡ ¡ Roughly half of undergraduates who major in the sciences switch out of these fields, and very few non -science majors switch to science majors 24% of URM students complete a bachelor’s degree in science within 6 years of college entry compared to 40% of White students U. S. science pipeline called “leakier than warped rubber tubing” and underrepresented minorities are “missing persons” in those fields

Undergraduate student persistence in science ¡ ¡ ¡ An individual student’s own educational success is more than the sum of his or her personal will, aspiration, and traditional academic indicators such as test scores and high school grades; One’s gender, racial, and socioeconomic background, for example, also help shape one’s opportunity for college success; Educational experiences within institutions are not uniform but are directly affected by a student’s racial background and the structure of opportunity encountered.

Stereotype Threat (Steele & Aronson) ¡ Two components l l ¡ Domain identification Negative racial experiences and negative stereotypes Stereotype threat can lead to: l l Academic underperformance Dis-identification

From “Lab to Field” ¡ ¡ ¡ “This theory would be the least bit interesting unless it was attempting to describe performance differences that occur in real-world (i. e. , natural) settings” (Osborne). Challenge: researcher cannot manipulate the degree of threat directly but must assess it indirectly by tapping into natural variation in real-world populations. Those that have focused on “real-world” consequences in the context of higher education have done so through social surveys.

Data Source and Sample ¡ 2004 Freshman Survey ¡ 2005 Your First College Year (YFCY) survey ¡ 1, 745 URM biomedical or behavioral science* major students at 123 institutions * (Biomedical and behavioral science majors include: general biology, biochemistry/biophysics, microbiology/bacterial biology, zoology, other biological science, chemistry, medicine/dentistry/veterinary medicine, pharmacy, and psychology)

Stereotype Threat Conditions ¡ Domain Identification (alpha = 0. 68): l Importance of: ¡ ¡ ¡ (1) obtaining recognition from my colleagues for contributions to my field; (2) becoming an authority in my field; (3) making a theoretical contribution to science; (4) improving the health of minority communities; and (5) working to find a cure to a health problem. Negative racial experiences (alpha = 0. 72): l Frequency that students ¡ ¡ ¡ (1) felt insulted or threatened because of race/ethnicity; (2) had tense, somewhat hostile race-related interactions; (3) had guarded/cautious race-related interactions; (4) have been singled out because of race/ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation; and (5) have heard faculty express stereotypes about racial/ethnic groups in class.

Research Design ¡ Variables l l l ¡ Demographic characteristics Academic preparation Concern about financing college education Academic self-concept Institutional structural characteristics Institutional Selectivity Analysis l Hierarchical Generalized Linear Modeling (HGLM)

Results for Model 1 (includes all background, institution, & ST conditions) ¡ ¡ High domain identification: 3. 99% more likely to persist than students with moderate domain identification No main effect associated with students’ level of stigma-inducing experiences on persistence Participation in pre-professional/departmental club (10. 98% more likely to persist) Institutional selectivity: 100 -point increase reduced persistence probability by 3. 81%

Results for Model 2 (includes ST Interaction Term) ¡ ¡ Interaction term representing stereotype threat: significant and negative effect on science persistence One-point increase in stereotype threat interaction resulted in a 5. 67% reduction in their probability of persisting;

Stereotype Threat: Undermining the Persistence of Racial Minority Freshmen in the Sciences Figure 1 Interaction Effect of Domain Identification and Stigma-Inducing Experiences on Students’ Likelihood of Science Major Persistence

Conclusions ¡ ¡ ¡ Findings support Steele’s claims that “stereotype threat affects only a subportion of the stereotyped group, and in the area of schooling, probably affects confident students more than unconfident ones”; Varying effects of domain identification Reduce chances that students will l (1) experience racial insults & threats (2) be singled out because of race/ethnicity, & (3) have instructors who express stereotypes.

Resources & Project Staff Faculty: Sylvia Hurtado, Co-Principal Investigator Mitchell Chang, Co-Principal Investigator Graduate Research Assistants: Kevin Eagan Jessica Sharkness Lorelle Espinsoa Minh Tran Christopher Newman Paolo Velasco Administrative Staff: Aaron Pearl Papers and reports are available for download from project website: http: //www. gseis. ucla. edu/heri/nih Project e-mail: herinih@ucla. edu