Research Questions - Current Project

 

  1. Do cultural, contextual, and social cognitive factors along with academic engagement, satisfaction, and persistence during college predict engagement, satisfaction, and persistence in engineering careers five to nine years after graduation?
  2. How does an extension of the integrated Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) explain engagement, satisfaction, and persistence in engineering careers among Latinxs across time? Are the relations in the extended and integrated SCCT moderated by gender?
  3. What are the effects of family and workplace supports (e.g., social support) and obstacles (e.g., discrimination) on Latinxs’ engagement, satisfaction, and persistence in engineering careers?
  4. Is a newly developed measure of engineering interests reliable and valid for engineers in the workplace? Do interest scores differ by gender?

 

Research Questions - Prior Projects (2014 - 2019), NSF Award #1430614 and #1430640

 

  1. Does Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) explain satisfaction, engagement, and persistence in engineering among Latina/o and White men and women? Are the relations among the SCCT variables (e.g., engineering self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, goal progress) leading to engineering satisfaction, engagement, and persistence moderated by factors such as institution type (HSIs vs. PWIs), gender, ethnicity, and/or the interaction of gender and ethnicity?
  2. Do SCCT variables longitudinally predict satisfaction, engagement, and persistence in engineering over five years? Are these longitudinal relations moderated by factors such as institution type (HSIs vs. PWIs), gender, ethnicity, and/or the interaction of gender and ethnicity?
  3. What individual and institutional factors influence Latinas/os' and women's decisions to persist or drop out of engineering majors and jobs? Do these influences differ by gender among Latinas/os, by ethnicity among women, or over time?

 

Research Questions - Prior Projects (2010 - 2014), NSF Award #1036713

 

  1. Do Latinas, White women, Latinos, and White men engineering students differ on the measured variables within the proposed Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) model? Are these potential differences related to ethnic identity, gender role traits, and year in school?
  2. Are there differences in the relationships among the SCCT variables leading to the academic major satisfaction and persistence in major by gender, ethnicity, and the interaction of gender and ethnicity, among engineering students?
  3. Do the measured variables at Time 1 predict variables at Times 2 and 3 as proposed by SCCT for engineering students? Are the relationships between the SCCT variables at Times 1, 2, and 3 moderated by gender, ethnicity, and the interaction of gender and ethnicity?
  4. Do learning experiences, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, goals, supports, and barriers measured during college influence post-graduation work and life satisfaction? Do gender, ethnicity, and their interaction moderate these relations for engineering graduates?
  5. What factors influence Latino/as' decisions to drop out of engineering majors? Do these influences differ by gender?