Psychological Allostatic Load: the Cost of Persistence in STEM Disciplines

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of persistence within STEM learning environments as a function of cumulative stress and latent trauma. The biopsychosocial impact of prolonged stressors due to hostile environments and academic demands has deleterious health effects on historically underrepresented students who enter STEM disciplines. The Trauma Symptoms Checklist for Children, clinical histories, and psychophysiomeasurement tools were used to measure the effects of cumulative stress and latent trauma as historically underrepresented students persisted through high school STEM discipline classes. Elevated responses on the inventory and history were triangulated through measures of biological markers for cumulative stress and developed into a profile combination of traits to identify those students likely to show symptomology consistent with the negative effects of cumulative stress and latent trauma. Examination of these outcomes using a latent class profile analysis model suggested the presence of cumulative stress resulting from program participation was significant.