Social cognitive predictors of Latinx and White engineering students' academic satisfaction and persistence intentions: Exploring interactions among social identities and institutional context

Development and Validation of the Academic Persistence Outcome Expectations Scale

Outcome expectations, an integral theoretical component of social cognitive career theory, remains almost completely unexamined in the domain of academic persistence, or the decision a student makes to remain in college. This study sought to develop a theoretically derived scale to measure outcome expectations. An initial item pool was developed and sent to a sample of college students. A second, confirmatory sample of undergraduate students was collected via an online crowdsourcing platform. Results suggested the presence of a two-factor structure was the most parsimonious solution across both samples. The two factors retained across both samples reflected positive and negative outcome expectations that students perceived about remaining in college for the year. Limitations and implications are discussed.

Academic Satisfaction of Women Students of Color in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: Roles of Discrimination, Proactive Personality, and Critical Consciousness

Underrepresentation of women and students of color has been a longstanding issue in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The present study examined factors that contribute to academic satisfaction among 585 women college students of color ( Mage = 21.42, SDage = 3.25; nBlack = 174, nLatina = 171, nAsian = 240), based on the Social Cognitive Career Theory satisfaction model. Experiences of discrimination was selected as an environmental obstacle and proactive personality as a person input in the model. In addition, critical consciousness was included as a personal resource variable. Multigroup measurement invariance tests and multigroup structural equation modeling were conducted to examine the racial/ethnic differences in constructs and their interrelationships. The findings showed that discrimination, proactive personality, and critical consciousness contributed to academic satisfaction via self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and goal progress. Theoretical, clinical, and institutional implications are discussed in light of the findings. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.