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This study examined how science identity and positive educational outcomes relate to student trainees' decision to pursue a research career in health-related sciences, within the context of a two-year research training program that prepares diverse undergraduate students for a research career. In analyses using the evaluation data, science identity and one of the positive educational outcomes significantly predicted trainees' decision to pursue a research career in biomedical and behavioral sciences. In general, students with stronger science identity and interest in pursuing research in academia exhibited a firmer decision to pursue a research career in sciences. In a separate analysis that examined the associations between the trainees' decision to pursue a health-related research career and their underrepresented minority identities, gender, and disciplinary track, results revealed that: (1) the interaction between trainees' disciplinary track (i.e., biomedical vs. behavioral sciences) and their total number of underrepresented minority status was associated with their decision to pursue a research career, but (2) the gender x disciplinary track interaction was not. Emphasizing the need for supporting diverse undergraduate trainees to solidify their science identity and prepare them for a research career in academia, we discuss implications of our findings for research training programs with similar aims.
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Engaging students in research is a high-impact practice shown to increase graduation outcomes and sustain their pursuit of careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). However, research opportunities for students early in their undergraduate studies are not widely available at most colleges or for most students. To overcome this barrier, we developed three online resources designed to introduce students to what research is and direct them on how to get started with the search for research opportunities. These resources consist of (a) two introductory videos to inspire students to learn more about research, (b) online modules on the topics of getting started with research, transferable research skills, and publications and presentations, and (c) a searchable faculty research mentor directory. We found these online resources to be an effective ways to reach and engage a large number of undergraduate students who are accustomed to obtaining information on the web. These online resources can also serve as useful supplemental resources for advising staff and faculty who wish to introduce students to research.
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Engaging undergraduates in research is a high impact practice shown to increase underrepresented students' persistence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields and entry into research careers. The California State University Long Beach (CSULB) BUilding Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Scholars Program is a 2-year, upper-division research training program. Although similar research training programs exist, most admit relatively few students a year, primarily from the natural sciences. The BUILD award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) allowed us to broaden research training to a wider range of health-related disciplines across four different colleges to have more even representation across the behavioral and biomedical science disciplines. Our Scholars Program builds upon best practices of programmatic mentoring, assets-based and cohort-based training, financial and educational support, and intensive research training by faculty in the students' disciplines. In this paper, we present the outcomes and evaluation of our training program with data from the first phase of the BUILD award (2015-2019). Findings demonstrate that our Scholars Program was effective at recruiting and retaining underrepresented students from a broad range of disciplines. Moreover, our trainees demonstrated a high level of research engagement through off-campus summer research experiences, conference presentations, and publications. The intensive training in the Scholars Program also yielded high graduate school acceptance rates for our trainees. Most importantly, our findings show that it is possible to broaden an intensive undergraduate research training program that is similarly effective for trainees across behavioral and biomedical disciplines, underrepresented minority status, and gender. While we highlight several elements of our training program, we emphasize these components likely work together interactively, and institutions wanting to establish a similar training program need to ensure sufficient resources for its successful implementation.
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This study examined the role of science identity in a two-year upper-division research training program that prepares diverse undergraduate students for a research career. Using the annual year-end student evaluation data, we examined whether science identity is a predictor or an outcome of learning that enhances career preparation in biomedical research. Results showed that science identity is a predictor of learning in our trainees. In general, students with stronger science identity at the end of Year 2 reported having acquired more research skills and experiences through the program. This finding demonstrates that science identity makes learning research skills meaningful and purposeful. Preliminary analyses also showed that the levels of science identity did not differ between Years 1 and 2. In fact, science identity approached the maximum possible scores in both years. These findings imply that the training program could have succeeded in bolstering participants' science identity early by the end of the first year. Our findings do not rule out the possibility that science identity is both a predictor and an outcome of learning, depending on the specific contexts of learning as well as learners' specific developmental phases. Further studies are needed to systematically test these and other possibilities.
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There is a broad need to support the early educational trajectories of underrepresented students pursuing behavioral and biomedical research, particularly at large, comprehensive institutions. The Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) initiative at California State University Long Beach (CSULB) created an Associates Program designed to provide undergraduates with early exposure to research and foster a sense of belonging and interest in a research career during their sophomore year. Our Associates Program had high retention rates (> 90%) and served as a pathway to other research opportunities on campus, with over half of the students entering an intensive, upper-division research training program at CSULB upon completion. Analysis of evaluation data gathered at multiple points throughout the training program provided preliminary evidence that our early intervention program resulted in student trainees' growth in a number of key areas, including their sense of belong to the BUILD Program, interests in science and research, and understanding of what research entails and of the skills necessary for conducting research (e.g., scientific writing, oral presentation, data analysis). More importantly, comparisons of the students who continued on to an upper-division research training program to those who did not continue revealed that students who continued reported generally higher levels of science/research interests regardless of the time points of the survey, and a greater increase in their perception of gains made in some areas of research during the second half of the training program. Lastly, our results also showed that the Associates Program is similarly effective for trainees across behavioral and biomedical disciplines, underrepresented minority status, and gender. Based on these findings, we conclude that an early intervention program for undergraduate students results in development of research skills for students exploring research and serves as an effective pipeline for diverse students into more intensive upper-division training programs.
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Engaging students in research is a high impact practice that improves student retention and persistence in behavioral and biomedical sciences and engineering. The California State University Long Beach (CSULB) Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Program offers an intensive research training experience to undergraduate students from a wide range of health-related disciplines. The goal of this program is to provide students with research skills, psychosocial resources, and graduate school application guidance that will make them competitive for Ph.D. programs. With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the campus closure of many universities, including CSULB, our student training had to transition from in-person training to online training. This paper discusses the development and implementation of a series of eight online modules for guiding students through the application process for summer research experiences and graduate schools. Overall, the BUILD trainees were positive about the online modules. Specifically, they indicated that the modules were useful, informative, easy to access/use, good use of their time, and a good supplemental activity to their learning community activities. Most trainees indicated that they preferred the modules to be implemented in a hybrid format, where the students can view the modules on their own first and then have an opportunity to engage in in-person/synchronous online discussions.
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The California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) BUILDing Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) program developed a near-peer mentoring component in which master's students serve as mentors for undergraduate research trainees in health-related disciplines, in addition to fulfilling teaching assistant duties. This paper has two parts. The first describes (a) the functions of this mentoring component, taking into consideration the context of CSULB; (b) the extensive year-round training curriculum for near-peer mentors; and (c) the evolution of this curriculum in response to feedback from BUILD trainees, near-peer mentors, and undergraduate research training instructors. The second part evaluates the effectiveness of the near-peer mentoring component, based on focus groups and quantitative surveys of both near-peer mentors and mentees. We offer recommendations for master's comprehensive research institutions interested in implementing near-peer mentoring within similar research training programs.
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BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: First-generation college graduates, racial and ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, and those from disadvantaged backgrounds are gravely underrepresented in the health research workforce representing behavioral health sciences and biomedical sciences and engineering (BHS/BSE). Furthermore, relative to their peers, very few students from these underrepresented groups (URGs) earn scientific bachelor's degrees with even fewer earning doctorate degrees. Therefore, programs that engage and retain URGs in health-related research careers early on in their career path are imperative to promote the diversity of well-trained research scientists who have the ability to address the nation's complex health challenges in an interdisciplinary way. The purpose of this paper is to describe the challenges, lessons learned, and sustainability of implementing a large-scale, multidisciplinary research infrastructure at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) - a minority-serving institution - through federal funding received by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Initiative. PROGRAM AND KEY HIGHLIGHTS: The CSULB BUILD initiative consists of developing a research infrastructure designed to engage and retain URGs on the research career path by providing them with the research training and skills needed to make them highly competitive for doctoral programs and entry into the research workforce. This initiative unites many research disciplines using basic, applied, and translational approaches to offer insights and develop technologies addressing prominent community and national health issues from a multidisciplinary perspective. Additionally, this initiative brings together local (e.g., high school, community college, doctoral research institutions) and national (e.g., National Research Mentoring Network) collaborative partners to alter how we identify, develop, and implement resources to enhance student and faculty research. Finally, this initiative establishes a student research training program that engages URGs earlier in their academic development, is larger and multidisciplinary in scope, and is responsive to the life contexts and promotes the cultural capital that URGs bring to their career path. IMPLICATIONS: Although there have been many challenges to planning for and developing CSULB BUILD's large-scale, multidisciplinary research infrastructure, there have been many lessons learned in the process that could aid other campuses in the development and sustainability of similar research programs.
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Asian Americans encounter barriers to mental health care, some of which are structural, whereas others may be cultural. Using data from a probability sample (N = 490) drawn from the largest Cambodian refugee community in the United States, the authors assessed the extent to which structural and cultural barriers were experienced. Surprisingly, a relatively small proportion endorsed commonly cited cultural barriers such as distrust of Western care (4%) and greater confidence in alternative care (5%), whereas most endorsed structural barriers such as high cost (80%) and language (66%). Among those with a probable diagnosis, a similar pattern was found. Findings suggest that structural, not culturally based, barriers are the most critical obstacles to care in this U.S. Cambodian refugee community.
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Asiático/psicología , Asiático/estadística & datos numéricos , Accesibilidad a los Servicios de Salud/estadística & datos numéricos , Trastornos Mentales/etnología , Servicios de Salud Mental/estadística & datos numéricos , Refugiados/psicología , Refugiados/estadística & datos numéricos , Adulto , Anciano , California , Cambodia/etnología , Terapias Complementarias , Características Culturales , Cultura , Femenino , Costos de la Atención en Salud/estadística & datos numéricos , Humanos , Lenguaje , Masculino , Trastornos Mentales/epidemiología , Trastornos Mentales/terapia , Servicios de Salud Mental/economía , Persona de Mediana Edad , Revisión de Utilización de Recursos/estadística & datos numéricosRESUMEN
OBJECTIVES: We assessed the rates and correlates of seeking mental health services among a probability sample of Cambodian refugees who needed such services. METHODS: Interviewers conducted face-to-face interviews with a representative sample drawn from the largest US community of Cambodian refugees. The analytic sample included 339 persons who met past 12-month criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder, major depression disorder, or alcohol use disorder. Respondents described contact with service providers for psychological problems during the preceding 12 months. We examined bivariate and multivariate predictors of seeking services. RESULTS: Respondents reported high rates of contact with both medical care providers (70%) and mental health care providers (46%). Seeking services from both types of providers was associated with lack of English-speaking proficiency, unemployment, 3 or fewer years of preimmigration education, and being retired or disabled. Women, individuals with health insurance, and persons receiving government assistance also were more likely to seek services. CONCLUSIONS: Cambodian refugees with mental health problems had high rates of seeking service for psychological problems during the preceding 12 months. Research is needed to examine the effectiveness of services received by Cambodian refugees.
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Servicios de Salud Mental/estadística & datos numéricos , Aceptación de la Atención de Salud/estadística & datos numéricos , Refugiados , Adulto , California , Cambodia/etnología , Servicios Comunitarios de Salud Mental , Femenino , Necesidades y Demandas de Servicios de Salud , Humanos , Entrevistas como Asunto , Masculino , Trastornos Mentales/epidemiología , Persona de Mediana Edad , Factores SocioeconómicosRESUMEN
CONTEXT: Little is known about the long-term mental health of trauma-exposed refugees years after permanent resettlement in host countries. OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence, comorbidity, and correlates of psychiatric disorders in the US Cambodian refugee community. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A cross-sectional, face-to-face interview conducted in Khmer language on a random sample of households from the Cambodian community in Long Beach, Calif, the largest such community in the United States, between October 2003 and February 2005. A total of 586 adults aged 35 to 75 years who lived in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge reign and immigrated to the United States prior to 1993 were selected. One eligible individual was randomly sampled from each household, with an overall response rate (eligibility screening and interview) of 87% (n = 490). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Exposure to trauma and violence before and after immigration (using the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire and Survey of Exposure to Community Violence); weighted past-year prevalence rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression (using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview version 2.1); and alcohol use disorder (by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test). RESULTS: All participants had been exposed to trauma before immigration. Ninety-nine percent (n = 483) experienced near-death due to starvation and 90% (n = 437) had a family member or friend murdered. Seventy percent (n = 338) reported exposure to violence after settlement in the United States. High rates of PTSD (62%, weighted), major depression (51%, weighted), and low rates of alcohol use disorder were found (4%, weighted). PTSD and major depression were highly comorbid in this population (n = 209; 42%, weighted) and each showed a strong dose-response relationship with measures of traumatic exposure. In bivariate analyses, older age, having poor English-speaking proficiency, unemployment, being retired or disabled, and living in poverty were also associated with higher rates of PTSD and major depression. Following multivariate analyses, premigration trauma remained associated with PTSD (odds ratio [OR], 2.08; 95% CI, 1.37-3.16) and major depression (OR, 1.56; 95% CI, 1.24-1.97); postmigration trauma with PTSD (OR, 1.65; 95% CI, 1.21-2.26) and major depression (OR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.12-1.86); and older age with PTSD (OR, 1.76; 95% CI, 1.46-2.13) and major depression (OR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.15-1.89). CONCLUSION: More than 2 decades have passed since the end of the Cambodian civil war and the subsequent resettlement of refugees in the United States; however, this population continues to have high rates of psychiatric disorders associated with trauma.
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Emigración e Inmigración/estadística & datos numéricos , Trastornos Mentales/epidemiología , Refugiados/psicología , Violencia/estadística & datos numéricos , Adulto , Anciano , Cambodia/etnología , Comorbilidad , Trastorno Depresivo Mayor/epidemiología , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Salud Mental , Persona de Mediana Edad , Prevalencia , Trastornos por Estrés Postraumático/epidemiología , Factores de Tiempo , Estados Unidos/epidemiología , GuerraRESUMEN
Using data from the Chinese American Epidemiological Study, risk for experiencing an initial episode of major depression across the life course was examined. Data were collected on 1,747 U.S.-born and foreign-born Chinese Americans (ages 18-65 years). Results suggest that Chinese American women did not evidence higher risk than Chinese American men for experiencing a 1st major depressive episode. Risk for experiencing a 1st depressive episode decreased as length of residence in the United States increased. Although those who immigrated at younger ages evidenced greater overall risk, those who came at later ages were more likely to become depressed at or soon after arrival. Competing theories of acculturation-related risk are discussed and directions for future research are proposed.