Mentorship in STEM: A Longitudinal Look at Sequences, Loss, and Quality on Persistence Intentions

• In Event: 3429 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 15. Higher Education: STEM

Abstract

Current institutional demands make mentorship loss an emergent threat for university students, especially those in STEM. However, research tends to focus solely on students who have or gain mentors, leaving the prevalence and impact of mentorship loss unexplored. In this paper, we address this gap by exploring students’ maintenance of mentorship relationships over time. Using data from a national, longitudinal panel sample of college-level STEM students, exploratory sequence analyses show that a nearly one-fifth of students lose mentors over the course of three academic years with such loss negatively impacting intent to pursue a science career. We find that this effect holds even while controlling for three key aspects of mentorship relationship quality (i.e. instrumental support, psychosocial support, and relationship satisfaction). These results are important because they help contextualize one of the most commonly implemented strategies to increase STEM student retention. Specifically, quality mentorship is important, but so is maintenance of mentorship over time. Future directions as well as implications of these results for formal mentorship initiatives and enrichment programs are also discussed.

Authors

• Kelly Lorraine Markowski, Kent State University

• Brennan J. Miller, Kent State University