Academic and Social Networks among First Year STEM Students

Abstract

Students’ sense of belonging and academic self-efficacy are important factors in their college success. In this study, we examine the relationship between a first year intervention, NxtGEN, with STEM students and their reported sense of belonging and academic self-efficacy. Moreover, we explore a mechanism for explaining differences in sense of belonging and academic self-efficacy among NxtGEN participants and a comparison group. Specifically, we describe the characteristics of students’ academic and social support networks and ways these networks differ by participation in the intervention. This study relies on longitudinal survey data in which students listed people to whom they are connected in academic and social settings and provided details about the frequency and nexus of their connection to these people. Students also completed scales to measure sense of belonging and academic self-efficacy on this survey. We also surveyed a similar group of first year students who did not receive the NxtGEN intervention in order to better examine the effects of program participation. Using these data, we find that, on average, students who did not participate in NxtGEN had slightly larger academic and social networks in both the fall and winter terms of their first year. In addition, NxtGEN students in the spring term reported a higher sense of STEM self-efficacy but a lower sense of social belonging relative to their non-NxtGEN counterparts. Average NxtGEN student STEM self-efficacy scores remained stable across the fall and spring terms, while non-NxtGEN student STEM self-efficacy scores decreased over time. At the same time, scores for a sense of social belonging decreased over time for NxtGEN students while it increased for non-NxtGEN students.