Higher Education is Complex: Exploring the Dynamic Interplay among Belonging, Competence Beliefs, Role Identity, and Achievement in Engineering Students

• In Event: Messages, Pedagogies, and Identities: Building Belonging for Diverse Learners

Abstract

Students continue to leave STEM fields in large numbers, particularly students from historically underrepresented groups in engineering. Prior research underscores the importance of psychological processes—such as belonging, competence beliefs, and role identity—in promoting achievement and persistence in engineering, yet few studies have examined these constructs as dynamic and interdependent. This study used a random-intercepts cross-lagged panel model and a complex systems lens to understand how these psychological processes and achievement interacted over four years within university engineering students. Results demonstrated that all psychological processes and achievement contributed to a complex web of direct and indirect associations that were idiosyncratic at each time point, highlighting how patterns of associations shift within students over time.

Authors

• William Van Luven, Michigan State University

• Garam A. Lee, Michigan State University

• Utku Caybas, Michigan State University

• Saki Inoue, Michigan State University

• Marissa N Taylor, University of Michigan

• Hyein Jee, Michigan State University

• René Gerardo Pérez Melgar, Michigan State University

• S. Patrick Walton, Michigan State University

• Lisa Linnenbrink-Garcia, Michigan State University