The influence of kindness on academics' identity, well-being and stress.

The well-being of people working and studying in higher education, including students, staff, and faculty, is a topic of increasing concern. The lack of well-being may be attributed to the current academic context, which does not consistently provide cues that affirm social inclusion to all members of the academic population. This study examines the role of kindness (defined as actions that affirm dignity and social inclusion) in promoting identification with community and well-being in higher education utilizing a cross-sectional study of 182 diverse members of higher education.

Culture and Quality Matter in Building Effective Mentorship Relationships with Native STEM Scholars.

Native peoples (Native American, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian) are underrepresented in academia; they represent 2% of the US population but 0.01% of enrolled undergraduate students. Native peoples share the experiences of colonization and forced assimilation, resulting in the loss of ancestral knowledge, language, and cultural identity.

Achieving STEM diversity: Fix the classrooms.

Outdated teaching methods amount to discrimination.

Similarity and Contact Frequency Promote Mentorship Quality among Hispanic Undergraduates in STEM.

Mentoring relationships can be important for promoting the success and persistence of undergraduates, particularly for students from historically underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. While mentoring is often cited as important for attracting and retaining students from underrepresented groups in STEM, little is known about the differential mentoring processes that can result from similar and dissimilar mentor-protégé pairs. The present study tests the process-oriented mentorship model (POMM) regarding how mentor-protégé similarities and the moderating role of contact frequency influence mentorship quality and STEM research career persistence intentions among faculty-mentored Hispanic STEM majors in their senior year of college.

Content and Quality of Science Training Programs Matter: Longitudinal Study of the Biology Scholars Program.

Many science training programs are successful at supporting students in completing their degree programs. However, it is not clear which aspects of these programs meaningfully contribute toward achieving this goal. The current longitudinal study examined a well-established science training program, the Biology Scholars Program (BSP) at the University of California, Berkeley, to see whether social connections formed in BSP and/or enthusiasm about the BSP activities are key components in contributing to students' greater integration into their professional communities at 12 months and intentions to persist at 18 months into the program.

Testing models of reciprocal relations between social influence and integration in STEM across the college years.

The present study tests predictions from the Tripartite Integration Model of Social Influences (TIMSI) concerning processes linking social interactions to social integration into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) communities and careers. Students from historically overrepresented groups in STEM were followed from their senior year of high school through their senior year in college. Based on TIMSI, we hypothesized that interactions with social influence agents (operationalized as mentor network diversity, faculty mentor support, and research experiences) would promote both short- and long-term integration into STEM via social influence processes (operationalized as science self-efficacy, identity, and internalized community values).

The Influence of Social Supports on Graduate Student Persistence in Biomedical Fields.

Pathways to biomedical careers are not being pursued with equal vigilance among all students. Emerging research shows that historically underrepresented (HU) students who maintain a strong science identity are more likely to persist. However, the influence of on persistence is less studied, especially as it relates to science identity among doctoral students.

The Influence of Microaffirmations on Undergraduate Persistence in Science Career Pathways.

The present studies aimed to advance the measurement and understanding of microaffirmation kindness cues and assessed how they related to historically underrepresented (HU) and historically overrepresented (HO) undergraduate student persistence in science-related career pathways. Study 1 developed and tested the dimensionality of a new Microaffirmations Scale. Study 2 confirmed the two-factor structure of the Microaffirmations Scale and demonstrated that the scale possessed measurement invariance across HU and HO students.

Future directions in meditation research: Recommendations for expanding the field of contemplative science.

The science of meditation has grown tremendously in the last two decades. Most studies have focused on evaluating the clinical effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions, neural and other physiological correlates of meditation, and individual cognitive and emotional aspects of meditation. Far less research has been conducted on more challenging domains to measure, such as group and relational, transpersonal and mystical, and difficult aspects of meditation; anomalous or extraordinary phenomena related to meditation; and post-conventional stages of development associated with meditation.

The Influence of Affirming Kindness and Community on Broadening Participation in STEM Career Pathways.

The United States' inability to achieve equitable workforce development in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career pathways is well-recognized and has been attributed to the poor retention of a diverse stream of students in academia. Social science theory and research provide evidence that social contextual variables-specifically kindness cues affirming social inclusion-influence chronic underrepresentation of some groups within STEM career pathways. Review of the literature suggests that the current STEM academic context does not consistently provide cues that affirm social inclusion to all members of the academic population, and that policies that address this disparity are essential to broadening STEM workforce development in the United States.

Enabling full representation in science: the San Francisco BUILD project's agents of change affirm science skills, belonging and community.

Background: The underrepresentation of minority students in the sciences constrains innovation and productivity in the U.S. The SF BUILD project mission is to remove barriers to diversity by taking a "fix the institution" approach rather than a "fix the student" one.

A Longitudinal Study of How Quality Mentorship and Research Experience Integrate Underrepresented Minorities into STEM Careers.

African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans are historically underrepresented minorities (URMs) among science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degree earners. Viewed from a perspective of social influence, this pattern suggests that URMs do not integrate into the STEM academic community at the same rate as non-URM students. Estrada and colleagues recently showed that Kelman's tripartite integration model of social influence (TIMSI) predicted URM persistence into science fields.

'Speaking Truth' Protects Underrepresented Minorities' Intellectual Performance and Safety in STEM.

We offer and test a brief psychosocial intervention, Speaking Truth to EmPower (STEP), designed to protect underrepresented minorities' (URMs) intellectual performance and safety in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). STEP takes a 'knowledge as power' approach by: (a) providing a tutorial on stereotype threat (i.e.

The Role of Social Influences on Pro-Environment Behaviors in the San Diego Region.

From a social psychological perspective, addressing the threats of climate change involves not only education, which imparts objective facts upon a passive individual, but also a socializing process. The Tripartite Integration Model of Social Influence (TIMSI) provides a theoretical framework that connects acquiring climate change knowledge with integration into a community, which results in greater engagement in climate friendly behaviors. Survey data were collected from 1000 residents in San Diego County.

Mentor qualities that matter: The importance of perceived (not demographic) similarity.

Mentoring, particularly same-gender and same-race mentoring, is increasingly seen as a powerful method to attract and retain more women and racial minorities into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and careers. This study examines elements of a mentoring dyad relationship (i.e.

Improving Underrepresented Minority Student Persistence in STEM.

Members of the Joint Working Group on Improving Underrepresented Minorities (URMs) Persistence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)-convened by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute-review current data and propose deliberation about why the academic "pathways" leak more for URM than white or Asian STEM students. They suggest expanding to include a stronger focus on the institutional barriers that need to be removed and the types of interventions that "lift" students' interests, commitment, and ability to persist in STEM fields. Using Kurt Lewin's planned approach to change, the committee describes five recommendations to increase URM persistence in STEM at the undergraduate level.

Tailored Panel Management: A Theory-Based Approach to Building and Maintaining Participant Commitment to a Longitudinal Study.

Many psychological processes unfold over time, necessitating longitudinal research designs. Longitudinal research poses a host of methodological challenges, foremost of which is participant attrition. Building on Dillman's work, we provide a review of how social influence and relationship research informs retention strategies in longitudinal studies.

Sustaining Optimal Motivation: A Longitudinal Analysis of Interventions to Broaden Participation of Underrepresented Students in STEM.

The underrepresentation of racial minorities and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines is a national concern. Goal theory provides a useful framework from which to understand issues of underrepresentation. We followed a large sample of high-achieving African American and Latino undergraduates in STEM disciplines attending 38 institutions of higher education in the United States over 3 academic years.

The consequences of chronic stereotype threat: domain disidentification and abandonment.

Stereotype threat impairs performance across many domains. Despite a wealth of research, the long-term consequences of chronic stereotype threat have received little empirical attention. Beyond the immediate impact on performance, the experience of chronic stereotype threat is hypothesized to lead to domain disidentification and eventual domain abandonment.

Toward a Model of Social Influence that Explains Minority Student Integration into the Scientific Community.

Students from several ethnic minority groups are underrepresented in the sciences, such that minority students more frequently drop out of the scientific career path than non-minority students. Viewed from a perspective of social influence, this pattern suggests that minority students do not integrate into the scientific community at the same rate as non-minority students. Kelman (1958, 2006) describes a tripartite integration model of social influence (TIMSI) by which a person orients to a social system.

Patching the Pipeline: Reducing Educational Disparities in the Sciences Through Minority Training Programs.

For more than 40 years, there has been a concerted national effort to promote diversity among the scientific research community. Yet given the persistent national-level disparity in educational achievements of students from various ethnic and racial groups, the efficacy of these programs has come into question. The current study reports results from a longitudinal study of students supported by a national National Institutes of Health-funded minority training program, and a propensity score matched control.