Entry and Pipeline Social Capital Impacts on Women and Underrepresented Minority Student Persistence in Engineering

• In Event: Women, Underrepresented Minority, and LGBTQPIA+ Students' STEM Experiences and Success: Undergraduate Climate and Social Capital

Abstract

1. Objectives or purposes
The purpose of this study is to understand the determinants of persistence of women and URM students in engineering curriculum in order to improve retention of these groups and increase diversity in the engineering workforce.

2. Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
Social network theory holds that individuals differ in the social capital they have as a result of their relationships to influential others and that these differences in social capital impact a range of individual outcomes. Application of this theoretical framework to the problem of persistence suggests that individuals who have greater levels of social capital will have lower chances of failing to persistent in the pursuit of an engineering degree. In addition, groups that differ systematically in persistence may do so because they also differ systematically in access to and the amount of social capital they have.

3. Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
Cox proportional hazard models are formulated and estimated for the event “failure to persist in engineering” which occurs if a respondent drops out of college, transfers out of engineering or graduates with a non-engineering degree. Covariates for this risk include gender and racial/ethnic group of respondent, Entry Social Capital, measured as the number of alters in high school named as influencers of the decision to pursue engineering, and Pipeline Social Capital, measured each year in college as the number of college alters named as influencers of career related decisions.

4. Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials
Survey data from an initial survey of 2,186 first year engineering majors at 11 diverse universities (PWIs, HSIs, HBCU) , and four follow-up surveys of this initial cohort, the last wave consisting of 883 respondents from the initial survey.

5. Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
Entry Social Capital has no effect on the failure to persist whereas Pipeline Social Capital has a very large impact which significantly reduces the failure to persist. Being male reduces the failure to persist but not significantly so. With respect to racial/ethnic group membership, results are more complicated. Entry Social Capital has no significant main effect and the only significant racial/ethnic group effect is that Black students have an increased chance of failure to persist in comparison to other groups. However, there is a significant interaction effect between Entry Social Capital and being a Black student. Being the Black student is detrimental to persistence, but the effect of Entry Social Capital in that group significantly reduces the failure to persist. In this model, Pipeline Social Capital remains a very large and important factor in reducing the risk of failure to persist for all racial/ethnic groups.

6. Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
The work advances understanding of the determinants of persistence of women and URM students as engineering majors, specifically, the important role played by relationships to others, i.e., the amount of and access to social capital that individuals have during their college careers.

Authors

• John Skvoretz, University of South Florida - Tampa

• Gladis Kersaint, University of Connecticut - Storrs

• Chrystal A. S. Smith, University of Connecticut - Storrs

• Rebecca A. Campbell-Montalvo, University of Connecticut - Storrs

• Ellen Puccia, Beta Research Associates, Inc.

• Hesborn Otieno Wao, University of South Florida

• Julie P. Martin

• Reginald S. Lee, University of South Florida

• George T. MacDonald, University of South Florida