The Disproportionate Impact of Fear of Negative Evaluation on First-Generation College Students, LGBTQ+ Students, and Students with Disabilities in College Science Courses

Abstract

Fear of negative evaluation (FNE), defined as a sense of dread associated with being negatively judged in a social situation, has been identified as the primary factor underlying undergraduate anxiety in active-learning science courses. However, no quantitative studies have examined the extent to which science undergraduates experience FNE and how they are impacted by FNE in college science courses. To address this gap, we surveyed 566 undergraduates from one university in the U.S. Southwest who were enrolled in life sciences courses where they had opportunities to speak in front of the whole class. Participants were asked a suite of questions regarding their experiences with FNE in large-enrollment college science courses. We found that first-generation college students, LGBTQ+ students, and students with disabilities reported disproportionately high levels of FNE compared with their counterparts. Additionally, students reported that FNE can cause them to overthink their responses and participate less in class. Participants rated being cold called and presenting alone as forms of whole-class participation that elicit the highest levels of FNE. This research highlights the impact of FNE on undergraduates and provides student-generated recommendations to reduce FNE in active-learning science courses.

FIGURE 1.

FNE factor scores regressed on gender, race/ethnicity, college generation status, LGBTQ+ status, disability status, and international student status. Groups of interest are listed in parentheses. Reference groups are men, white students, continuing-generation college students, non-LGBTQ+ students, and students who do not identify as having a disability. Blue numbers (and those to the right of the vertical gray line) indicate a positive estimate, or a higher FNE score, whereas red (left of the vertical gray line) indicates a negative estimate, or a lower FNE score. Confidence intervals that do not cross the vertical gray line at x = 0 are statistically significant, which is also indicated by the asterisks. Significance: *p < 0.05; ***p < 0.001 (model: FNE factor score ∼ gender + race/ethnicity + college generation status + LGBTQ+ status + disability + international status).

FIGURE 2.

Students’ self-reported frequency of performing a certain behavior in response to FNE in the context of college science courses. The middle blue line within each violin represents the mean value of likeliness of performing each indicated behavior.

FIGURE 3.

Students’ FNE scores by whether they participated in each social evaluative practice. For each practice, students were asked to rate the extent to which they worry about being judged by other students in a context where they would need to participate in each practice, ranging from 0, not at all, to 4, extremely. Underlined practices indicate that prior experience with the social evaluative practice was a significant predictor (p < 0.001) in the linear regression of the student FNE for the practice (model: practice FNE score ∼ practice experience + gender + first-gen + LGBTQ+ + disability). The fully shaded point represents the mean with SD, with individual responses lightly shaded behind.

FIGURE 4.

Students’ perceptions of a behavior’s likelihood of causing them to be negatively evaluated by their peers (orange) and how likely participants said they were to evaluate their peers for exhibiting each behavior (blue). For each behavior, students were asked to rate how likely they would be to worry about being judged by other students if they exhibited the behavior and the likelihood of judging others for exhibiting the behavior, ranging from 0, extremely unlikely, to 5, extremely likely. Asterisks indicate that the difference of the means is significant based on paired t tests (all p < 0.001). The fully shaded point represents the mean with SD, with individual responses lightly shaded behind.

FIGURE 5.

Percentage of students who selected a factor related to how instructors can decrease FNE in large-enrollment college science courses.