Understanding the influence of a contextual factor, stigma consciousness: a barrier for underrepresented students in engineering

Abstract

The present study used Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) to examine the influence of racial/ethnic stigma consciousness on persistence intention among 263 underrepresented racial/ethnic minority engineering students. Path analysis was used to test a model depicting relationships between contextual (i.e., racial/ethnic stigma consciousness, institution types) and person-cognitive (i.e., self-efficacy, positive and negative outcome expectations, persistence intention) variables as hypothesized in SCCT. Results indicated that both hypothesized indirect and direct structural models provided an excellent fit to the data, but the hypothesized indirect model showed better fit. Test of mediation was statistically significant for engineering self-efficacy, but not for positive and negative outcome expectations in the relations between racial/ethnic stigma consciousness and persistence intentions. Results of moderated mediation indicated a significant interaction of coping efficacy on racial/ethnic stigma consciousness on the indirect effect via engineering self-efficacy. A series of ANOVA and MANOVA were also conducted to determine whether demographic and contextual variables could explain racial/ethnic stigma consciousness, coping efficacy, and socio-cognitive variables (i.e., self-efficacy, positive and negative outcome expectations, persistence intentions) to pursue engineering degree. Suggestions for future research directions, clinical implications, and limitations are further provided.