An official website of the United States government
The COVID–19 pandemic has greatly affected college students nationwide. Recent research suggests that theCOVID–19 pandemic has disproportionately impactedAfrican–American young adults. The infection case rates, hospitalizations, and death rates in African–American populations are 2–5 times higher than among White populations. The intergenerational trauma and systemic racism that African–Americans have faced in past and present times have fomented conditions that lead to vulnerability within this historically resilient community.These stresses and losses increase the risks of anxiety and substance use. This study examined the relationship between COVID‐19‐related anxiety and substance use, and how adaptive coping and optimism influence this relationship in African–Americans young adults. Results reveal that COVID‐related anxiety predicts alcohol and drug use. Optimism and adaptive coping are related to lower pandemic‐related anxiety, alcohol, and drug use among African-American young adults.
more »
« less
The COVID-19 Pandemic’s Impact on Black or African American Undergraduate STEM+C Students at a Hispanic Serving Institution
The COVID-19 pandemic has created various challenges for all students, regardless of ethnicity. Research reveals how historically minoritized groups have struggled in their educational pursuits due to the pandemic. Black/African American students have encountered increased challenges in learning online, job insecurity, and negative impacts on their health or emotional state. While research indicates these negative influences have adversely affected students’ overall engagement in postsecondary education, literature is scarce regarding how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected Black or African American students in postsecondary science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and computing (STEM+C) education. The purpose of this exploratory study is to understand the influences of COVID-19 on Black/African American STEM+C majors at a Hispanic serving institution.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2046079
- PAR ID:
- 10490268
- Publisher / Repository:
- Journal of Negro Education
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Negro education
- Volume:
- 91
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 2167-6437
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 336-345
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Black/African American, COVID-19 pandemic, Hispanic serving institution, STEM+C education, undergraduate
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Goller, Carlos C. (Ed.)ABSTRACT The global spread of the novel coronavirus first reported in December 2019 led to drastic changes in the social and economic dynamics of everyday life. Nationwide, racial, gender, and geographic disparities in symptom severity, mortality, and access to health care evolved, which impacted stress and anxiety surrounding COVID-19. On university campuses, drastic shifts in learning environments occurred as universities shifted to remote instruction, which further impacted student mental health and anxiety. Our study aimed to understand how students from diverse backgrounds differ in their worry and stress surrounding COVID-19 upon return to hybrid or in-person classes during the Fall of 2020. Specifically, we addressed the differences in COVID-19 worry, stress response, and COVID-19-related food insecurity related to race/ethnicity (Indigenous American, Asian/Asian American, black/African American, Latinx/Hispanic, white, or multiple races), gender (male, female, and gender expressive), and geographic origin (ranging from rural to large metropolitan areas) of undergraduate students attending a regional-serving R2 university, in the southeastern U.S. Overall, we found significance in worry, food insecurity, and stress responses with females and gender expressive individuals, along with Hispanic/Latinx, Asian/Asian American, and black/African American students. Additionally, students from large urban areas were more worried about contracting the virus compared to students from rural locations. However, we found fewer differences in self-reported COVID-related stress responses within these students. Our findings can highlight the disparities among students’ worry based on gender, racial differences, and geographic origins, with potential implications for mental health of university students from diverse backgrounds. Our results support the inclusion of diverse voices in university decisioning making around the transition through the COVID-19 pandemic.more » « less
-
The 2020 global pandemic caused by COVID-19 forced higher education institutions to immediately stop face-to-face teaching and transition to virtual instruction. This transition has been difficult for engineering education, which has strong hardware, software, and practical/laboratory components, and has further exacerbated the personal and professional experiences of minoritized students in engineering. This study sought to answer the following overarching research question: How has the abrupt transition to online instruction due to COVID-19 affected students traditionally underrepresented in engineering? The abrupt transition for minoritized students and their decision to prioritize their mental health was further explored to answer the following: (1) How many minoritized students chose to prioritize their mental health? (2) How do minoritized students describe their experiences and choices to prioritize (or not) their mental health? Using SenseMaker, participants shared stories using the following prompt: Imagine you are chatting with a friend or family member about the evolving COVID-19 crisis. Tell them about something you have experienced recently as an engineering student. After completing their narrative, a series of triadic, dyadic, and sentiment-based multiple-choice questions were presented. Student responses varied, including positive experiences, which resulted in a strong prioritization, while others had negative experiences resulting in varied prioritizations. Some students chose to prioritize their mental health to remain mentally and emotionally healthy; some with negative experiences abandoned self-care strategies in order to tend to the needs of academics and family. Participants’ decisions to prioritize their mental health were not monolithic.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)The COVID-19 outbreak has severely affected graduate education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. It disrupted the learning and career development including in-person laboratory research activities and mentoring meetings. Since early 2000s, STEM graduate schools have been promoting the use of individual development plans (IDPs), which provide formalized mentorship, to support graduate students' academic and career success. It is unclear whether and to what extent the IDPs play a role in promoting mentoring and career-relevant outcomes among students during the crisis. This study presents some of the first evidence on the interrelationships of IDP status, mentoring support and satisfaction, and career attitudes with a diverse nationwide sample of STEM graduate students during the COVID-19 pandemic.more » « less
-
Abstract We propose a conceptual framework for STEM education that is centered around justice for minoritized groups. Justice‐centered STEM education engages all students in multiple STEM subjects, including data science and computer science, to explain and design solutions to societal challenges disproportionately impacting minoritized groups. We articulate the affordances of justice‐centered STEM education for one minoritized student group that has been traditionally denied meaningful STEM learning: multilingual learners (MLs). Justice‐centered STEM education with MLs leverages the assets they bring to STEM learning, including their transnational experiences and knowledge as well as their rich repertoire of meaning‐making resources. In this position paper, we propose our conceptual framework to chart a new research agenda on justice‐centered STEM education to address societal challenges with all students, especially MLs. Our conceptual framework incorporates four interrelated components by leveraging the convergence of multiple STEM disciplines to promote justice‐centered STEM education with MLs: (a) societal challenges in science education, (b) justice‐centered data science education, (c) justice‐centered computer science education, and (d) justice‐centered engineering education. The article illustrates our conceptual framework using the case of the COVID‐19 pandemic, which has presented an unprecedented societal challenge but also an unprecedented opportunity to cultivate MLs' assets toward promoting justice in STEM education. Finally, we describe how our conceptual framework establishes the foundation for a new research agenda that addresses increasingly complex, prevalent, and intractable societal challenges disproportionately impacting minoritized groups. We also consider broader issues pertinent to our conceptual framework, including the social and emotional impacts of societal challenges; the growth of science denial and misinformation; and factors associated with politics, ideology, and religion. Justice‐centered STEM education contributes to solving societal challenges that K‐12 students currently face while preparing them to shape a more just society.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- The DOI is not currently available.
