Limited Support for Use of a Social-Belonging Intervention With First-Year Engineering Students

• In Event: STEM Interventions for Learning and Motivation

Abstract

Undergraduates insecure about whether they belong in college interpret adversities on campus as confirmation of their fears. A growing number of studies with college freshmen demonstrate benefits of a brief social-belonging intervention that helps students reframe belonging uncertainty as temporary and universal. We implemented a social-belonging intervention with first-year freshman engineering majors (N = 284), closely replicating the methods of prior studies. We found a significant interaction between intervention condition and underrepresentation status on changes to perceived belonging. Underrepresented students in the belonging intervention increased their belonging ratings over the semester. However, the intervention did not impact engineering mathematics course achievement, GPA, or retention in the major, demonstrating only limited support for use of a social-belonging intervention with engineering students.

Authors

• Joanna Perry Weaver, University at Albany - SUNY

• Marci S. DeCaro, Vanderbilt University

• Patricia A. Ralston, University of Louisville