Molly Pan
Research Mentor: Angela Ebreo
Mentor Department: Personal Assets & System Strengths Program/CSHPE, Education
Author(s): Wenjun Pan, Minso Choi, Angela Ebreo
Session: Session 5 (2:00 PM – 2:50 PM)
Presentation Type: Poster 32
Abstract
Women remain underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), earning about 39% of bachelor’s degrees in these fields (Settles et al., 2016). Gender underrepresentation and related social factors may influence women’s persistence and experiences in STEM fields (Piatek-Jimenez et al., 2018). These factors can affect students’ sense of belonging and recognition, key components of STEM identity (Kim et al., 2018). This study examines how women’s STEM identity relates to student strengths, specifically leadership and academic self-efficacy. Prior research suggests that STEM identity is associated with engagement, persistence, leadership development, and long-term success in STEM pathways, including degree completion and career pursuit (Chen et al., 2021; Ross & Fletcher, 2018). Using survey data from 62 women participating in a federally funded broadening participation program, Pearson correlations, regression analyses, and independent-samples t tests were conducted to examine whether STEM identity predicts leadership and whether STEM identity and leadership predict academic self-efficacy. Results indicated that STEM identity was positively associated with leadership. Although leadership was positively correlated with academic self-efficacy, neither STEM identity nor leadership uniquely predicted academic self-efficacy when examined simultaneously. No significant differences were found between White women and women from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds across identity, leadership, and self-efficacy. Overall, STEM identity appears closely linked to leadership development among women in STEM, while academic self-efficacy may be influenced by other academic or contextual factors. These findings highlight the importance of programs that support identity development through mentoring, leadership opportunities, and collaborative STEM experiences.
