– Stigma consciousness (in the form of awareness of sexism and negative attitudes about women), but not stereotype vulnerability, negatively related to women’s confidence in their abilities to complete a college degree in a engineering major field.
– The lack of relationship between academic self-efficacy and stereotype vulnerability suggests that stereotype vulnerability does not directly influence self-efficacy beliefs. . Given that stereotype vulnerability was significantly related to both stigma consciousness and coping with barriers, it could be that the direct effects of stereotype vulnerability within the SCCT model were not captured.
– Results for self-efficacy for coping with barriers demonstrated a significant relationship to academic self-efficacy for STEM.
– The results uncover the existence of negative relationships between consciousness of discrimination due to group identity and academic self-efficacy. Promoting positive identity and constructive interaction with the environment may support women’s career development in engineering fields.
2017 - Stereotype threat as a barrier to women entering engineering careers
Participants were 211 women undergraduate college students enrolled in engineering-degree programs and recruited through STEM-program contacts of a state-wide scholarship program that works with 47 colleges and universities in a large Midwestern state. Students recruited were at least 18 years of age and had declared a major in a STEM field. All data were collected via online survey.
Academic self-efficacy was assessed using a version of the Self-Efficacy for Academic Milestones (AM-S) index. The index measures participants’ confidence in their ability to accomplish specific academic tasks. Coping efficacy was measured with the coping with barriers (CWB) scale. The CWB was used to measure college students’ efficacy for coping with barriers related to their educational goals. The scale contains twenty-one items related to education-related barriers.
The authors also used the eight-item Stereotype Vulnerability Scale (SVS) to measure the experience of stereotype threat for women. Each item begins with the stem: “How often do you feel that because of your gender … ” They also included the Stigma Consciousness Questionnaire (SCQ). The SCQ is a 10-item questionnaire that can be adapted to targeted populations who may experience negative stereotypes regarding their identity. The SCQ is meant to reflect an “expectation that one will be stereotyped, irrespective of one’s actual behavior.”