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1. “I feel listened to and heard”: How social support fosters a sense of belonging for low‐income STEM majors

   https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21977  

   Payne, Madison_R; LaDue, Nicole_D; Dugas, Daryl; Winitkun, Duangkamon; Schmidt, Stephanie (August 2024, Journal of Research in Science Teaching)

   Abstract Persistence across undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs is exceptionally low. Recent studies have shown that social support and sense of belonging are particularly important for students who are historically underrepresented in STEM, yet few interventions have directly targeted or investigated these factors. This qualitative study investigates low‐income, high‐achieving undergraduate STEM students' perceptions of their belonging in the context of a 2‐year peer social support group intervention. Interview analysis of 11 participants demonstrates that these STEM students attribute their sense of belonging to feelings or displays of comfort, commonality, community, and concerted effort. The peer group facilitated increases in participants' social support and sense of belonging by allowing participants to build friendships, recognize shared experiences, connect to their campus, build confidence with peers, and feel supported in their non‐academic and academic struggles. Although the program's main objective was to build participants' sense of belonging, the social support provided through the peer group also acted as a mechanism for increasing information‐related social capital. We recommend the implementation of similar non‐academic, supportive social spaces to increase the sense of belonging and overall persistence of low‐income STEM students. 

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2. Parasitic ‘ Candidatus Aquarickettsia rohweri’ is a marker of disease susceptibility in Acropora cervicornis but is lost during thermal stress

   https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.15245  

   Klinges, Grace; Maher, Rebecca_L; Vega_Thurber, Rebecca_L; Muller, Erinn_M (October 2020, Environmental Microbiology)

   Summary Holobiont phenotype results from a combination of host and symbiont genotypes as well as from prevailing environmental conditions that alter the relationships among symbiotic members. Corals exemplify this concept, where shifts in the algal symbiont community can lead to some corals becoming more or less thermally tolerant. Despite linkage between coral bleaching and disease, the roles of symbiotic bacteria in holobiont resistance and susceptibility to disease remains less well understood. This study thus characterizes the microbiome of disease‐resistant and ‐susceptibleAcropora cervicorniscoral genotypes (hereafter referred to simply as ‘genotypes’) before and after high temperature‐mediated bleaching. We found that the intracellular bacterial parasite ‘Ca.Aquarickettsia rohweri’ was strikingly abundant in disease‐susceptible genotypes. Disease‐resistant genotypes, however, had notably more diverse and even communities, with correspondingly low abundances of ‘Ca.Aquarickettsia’.Bleaching caused a dramatic reduction of ‘Ca.Aquarickettsia’ within disease‐susceptible corals and led to an increase in bacterial community dispersion, as well as the proliferation of opportunists. Our data support the hypothesis that ‘Ca.Aquarickettsia’ species increase coral disease risk through two mechanisms: (i) the creation of host nutritional deficiencies leading to a compromised host‐symbiont state and (ii) the opening of niche space for potential pathogens during thermal stress. 

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3. Developing inclusive youth: children’s moral reasoning predicts inclusive orientations

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-025-10117-6  

   Yee, Kathryn M; Raz, Kate Luken; Sims, Riley N; Killen, Melanie (December 2025, Social Psychology of Education)

   Abstract This study examined how children’s moral reasoning in response to intergroup exclusion scenarios relates to inclusive attitudes and behaviors. A sample of 528 students (M_age= 9.19,SD = 0.90; 264 girls) in third through fifth grade participated in theDeveloping Inclusive Youth(DIY) program, which provided structured opportunities for moral reasoning through varied intergroup scenarios and peer discussions. Results showed that more frequent use of moral reasoning predicted greater inclusivity across multiple measures. Children who engaged in higher levels of moral reasoning demonstrated more negative evaluations of exclusion, greater empathy toward peers from multiple racial groups, and a stronger desire to play with those peers. However, moral reasoning was not significantly associated with expectations for inclusion or with attitudes toward boys or girls. No significant interactions emerged between moral reasoning and participant demographics (race, gender, grade), suggesting broadly applicable effects. These findings highlight moral reasoning as a key mechanism for promoting inclusive orientations in childhood, particularly in contexts involving racial diversity. Future research should explore how moral reasoning interacts with other factors, such as empathy, perspective-taking, and group norms, to support inclusivity across social contexts. 

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4. Children's social preference for teachers versus peers in autism inclusion classrooms: An objective perspective

   https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.3276  

   Drye, Madison; Banarjee, Chitra; Perry, Lynn; Viggiano, Alyssa; Irvin, Dwight; Messinger, Daniel (December 2024, Autism Research)

   Abstract In inclusive preschools, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disabilities (DD) are less socially engaged with peers than are typically developing (TD) children. However, there is limited objective information describing how children with ASD engage with teachers, or how teacher engagement compares to engagement with peers. We tracked over 750 hours' worth of children's (N = 77;N_ASD = 24,N_DD = 23,N_TD = 30;M_age = 43.98 months) and teachers' (N = 12) locations and orientations across eight inclusion preschool classrooms to quantify child‐teacher and child‐peer social preference. Social approach velocity and time in social contact were computed for each child and compared across social partners to index children's preference for teachers over peers. Children with ASD approached teachers–‐but not peers—more quickly than children with TD, and children with ASD were approached more quickly by teachers and more slowly by peers than children with TD. Children with ASD spent less time in social contact with peers and did not differ from children with TD in their time in social contact with teachers. Overall, children with ASD showed a greater preference for approaching, being approached by, and being in social contact with teachers (relative to peers) than children with TD. No significant differences emerged between children with DD and children with TD. In conclusion, children with ASD exhibited a stronger preference for engaging with teachers over peers, re‐emphasizing the need for classroom‐based interventions that support the peer interactions of children with ASD. 

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5. Constructing STEM identity: An expanded structural model for STEM identity research

   https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21734  

   Dou, Remy; Cian, Heidi (November 2021, Journal of Research in Science Teaching)

   Abstract Identity development frameworks provide insight into why and to what extent individuals engage in STEM‐related activities. While studies of “STEM identity” often build off previously validated disciplinary and/or science identity frameworks, quantitative analyses of constructs that specifically measure STEM identity and its antecedents are scarce, making it challenging for researchers or practitioners to apply a measurement‐based perspective of participation in opportunities billed as “STEM.” In this study, we tested two expanded structural equation models of STEM identity development, building off extensions of science and disciplinary‐identity frameworks, that incorporated additional factors relevant to identity development: gender, ethnicity, home science support, parental education, and experiencing science talk in the home. Our models test theorized relationships between interest, sense of recognition, performance‐competence, and identity in the context of STEM with undergraduate students (N = 522) enrolled in introductory STEM courses at a Hispanic Serving Institution. Our findings support our measurement of STEM identity and its indicators, providing researchers with a predictive model associated with academic intentions across disciplinary domains in STEM. Further, our expanded model (i.e., Model I+) indicates significant contributions of participant gender, which has a larger indirect effect on STEM identity (β = 0.50) than the direct effect of STEM interest (β = 0.29), and of home support in relation to performance‐competence in academic contexts. Our model also posits a significant contribution of family science talk to sense of recognition as a STEM person, expanding our understandings of the important role of the home environment while challenging prior conceptions of science capital and habitus. We situate our results within a broader discussion regarding the validity of “STEM identity” as a concept and construct in the context of communities often marginalized in STEM fields. 

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