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Background: Social community is a framework for understanding the importance of social interactions within STEM mentoring programs. This study empirically examined the relationships described in the framework to explore how program elements and social support influenced student involvement.Purpose: Specifically, the study described how two engineering scholar programs that serve underrepresented and underserved students facilitated involvement in communities of practice, a proposed outcome of the social community model.Design: A survey (n = 256) was conducted with participants in both scholar programs and compared to responses of non-participants to learn whether the scholar programs led to greater involvement in communities of practice. Furthermore, interviews (n = 16) with scholar program participants were conducted to learn more about how they became involved in communities of practice.Results: We found that program participants were more likely to be involved in the three communities of practice (student diversity organizations, peer leadership roles, and undergraduate research) than demographically similar non-program participants. Furthermore, we found that mentors (peer leaders, program coordinators, and faculty) provided the necessary social support to encourage participants’ involvement. In particular, the essential role of peer leaders initiated community building and inspired subsequent participation in communities of practice.Conclusions: The social community framework for STEM mentoring programs provides a useful guide for understanding mentoring programs and benefits from examination of case studies to expand discussion of the theory and practices that promote student involvement in communities of practice.
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This content will become publicly available on May 1, 2026
fsQCA for discovering social emotional pathways to adult STEM engagement
Not AvailableThe Roads Taken Project utilized fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine necessary and sufficient conditions for achieving STEM involvement of alumnae(i) of six intensive STEM-based youth programs 15 to 25 years after participation. Outcomes included overall STEM involvement (including STEM academics and careers, personal STEM involvement, community STEM involvement, and long-term STEM identity), and post- program and program contribution to social-emotional learning and development. We identified conditions contributing to pathways to these outcomes. Results revealed that, although differing for the varied participant groups, social-emotional learning and development played a role in all the pathways but was particularly prominent in pathways to community STEM involvement. High program dose accompanied by a sense of competence, relatedness, and autonomy in programs with highly varied strategies led to social-emotional learning and varied by participant groups. Along with presenting findings, this study highlights fsQCA as a method for revealing the complex relationship of social-emotional development to STEM outcomes and the multiple pathways for achieving them.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1906396
- PAR ID:
- 10657412
- Publisher / Repository:
- Elsevier
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
- Volume:
- 98
- Issue:
- C
- ISSN:
- 0193-3973
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 101767
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Youth STEM programming Long-term follow-up Qualitative comparative analysis Social-emotional development and learning Basic psychological needs
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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