Promoting Persistence in the Biological and Medical Sciences: An Expectancy-Value Approach to Intervention

Abstract

A wide range of occupations require science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills, yet almost half of students who intend to pursue a post-secondary STEM education abandon these plans before graduating from college. This attrition is especially pronounced among underrepresented groups (i.e., racial/ethnic minorities and first-generation college students). We conducted a two-year follow-up of a utility-value intervention that had been implemented in an introductory biology course. This intervention was previously shown to improve performance in the course, on average and especially among underrepresented students, reducing the achievement gap. The goal of the present study was to examine whether the intervention also impacted persistence in the biomedical track throughout college. The intervention had a more positive impact on long-term persistence for students who were more confident that they could succeed at the beginning of the course, and this effect was partially driven by the extent to which students reflected on the personal relevance of biological topics in their essays. This mechanism was distinct from the process that had been found to underlie intervention effects on performance - engagement with course material - suggesting that utility-value interventions may affect different academic outcomes by initiating distinct psychological processes. Although we did not find that the intervention was differentially effective for underrepresented students in terms of persistence, we found that positive effects on performance were associated with increased persistence for these students. Results suggest that utility-value interventions in an introductory course can be an effective strategy to promote persistence in the biomedical sciences throughout college.

Keywords: STEM diversity; STEM persistence; expectancy-value theory; intervention science.

Figure 1.

Timeline of measures taken throughout the study.

Figure 2.

UVI x confidence about performance effect on the probability of enrolling in the second biology course (panel A) and persisting in a biomedical major (panel B). There was no effect of confidence on enrollment (p = .74) or major (p = .24) for students in the control condition, but for students who received the UVI, confidence positively predicted both enrollment (p < .01) and major (p < .01).

Figure 3.

Panel A displays the conceptual moderated mediation model of UVI effects on persistence in the biomedical track via personal focus, using an oval to depict the moderator variable (i.e., confidence) and a rhombus to depict the linguistic process variable (i.e., personal focus). Panel B displays the effect of confidence on enrollment in the second biology course at high (+.75 SD) and low (−.75 SD) levels of personal focus.

Figure 4.

Conceptual model of UVI effects on persistence in the biomedical track via personal focus, engagement and course grade, using ovals to depict moderators (i.e., confidence about performance, FG and URM status) and rhombi to depict linguistic process variables (i.e., personal focus, engagement). The dashed arrow represents indirect effects of the UVI on long-term persistence via engagement and course grade.

Figure 5.

Descriptive statistics illustrating implications of indirect UVI effects on persistence via course grade. Course grades were higher in the UVI condition than the control condition (Panel A), particularly for FG-URM students (Panel B). Higher grades were in turn associated with higher levels of enrollment in the second course and majoring in a biomedical field, for the full sample (Panel C) and for FG-URM students specifically (Panel D).