Research into Action to Diversify the Biomedical and Behavioral Research Workforce: Effects of a summer research program designed to address trainees’ IP feelings and improve their growth mindset

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Background: For most people, taking on new roles increases the likelihood of experiencing the impostor phenomenon (IP), defined as feelings of self-doubt about accomplishments and skill competence, and the fear of being exposed as a fraud1. Students in summer research programs may be especially susceptible to IP if they subscribe to the common belief that only brilliant people can succeed in STEM, suggesting a fixed mindset of ability2,3. For students pursuing research careers, having a fixed mindset and experiencing IP more often than others may have a negative impact on developing a strong identity as a scientist, an important predictor of career intention3,4. However, little research has focused on the relationship between IP, mindset, and formation of identity as a scientist, and no study, to our knowledge, has examined changes in trainees’ mindsets and scientist identity following a short-term research experience. Purpose: To evaluate the influence of participation in a summer research program in cancer prevention and control; specifically, we examine the degree to which trainees, with low or high IP feelings at entry into the program, reported changes in mindset and in scientist identity by the end of the summer. Methods: Summer research program activities included raising awareness about IP and growth mindset throughout, including an interactive workshop on strategies for recognizing and combating IP, a mid-summer senior scientist panel discussion on IP-related experiences, and an end-of-summer workshop to identify barriers and build supports to career advancement. A series of repeated-measures ANOVA was used to examine changes in ability mindset and scientist identity, comparing men and women with either low or high IP feelings at entry into the program. Data for this preliminary analysis were collected from 51 trainees over 2 summers who completed pre- and post-summer online surveys with three IP items1,5 and four mindset items2. Results: At entry into the summer program, 6 of 16 men (38%) and 7 of 35 women trainees (20%) were in the high IP group. There were no differences in fixed ability mindset between women/men, low/high IP groups, or entry/end of the program. Trainees with low IP at entry had a strong growth ability mindset, regardless of gender. However, men with high IP had significantly lower growth mindset than men with low IP at entry; by the end of the summer, high IP men increased their growth mindset to the same level as men with low IP. Women with high IP did not change their growth mindset by the end of the summer. As for changes in IP, men with high IP at entry had lower IP by the end of the program, but IP feelings for women did not change significantly by the end of the program. Women with low IP at entry had stronger scientist identity than women with high IP. Conversely and curiously, men with low IP at entry had significantly lower scientist identity than men with high IP, who had the highest scientist identity of all. Over the short summer experience, scientist identity did not change overall nor by gender. Conclusions: Participation in our summer program was effective in helping students increase their growth mindset and decrease their IP feelings after the program, but these improvements varied by both gender and report of IP upon entry. Gains in mindset and scientist identity were greatest for men with initially high IP feelings. These results show that changes can occur even in a 10-week program and with subsequent summer student cohorts, next steps will seek to expand impact across student subgroups. Speaker bio:Hwa Young Lee, Ph.D., is a program manager of the Cancer Prevention Research Training Program (CPRTP) at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She is trained as an educational psychologist with deep expertise in quantitative methods (structural equation modeling, multilevel modeling, and latent class models) and program evaluation. Her research interests include analysis of factors that influence trainees’ career intentions and promoting under-represented students in academia. In addition, as an insider-researcher, she is interested in helping non-native English-speaking trainees (L2) persist in their careers in academia, as well as helping mentors mentor their L2 trainees. Her favorite hobbies include watching movies, listening to rock music, traveling, eating diverse food, and having a good time with family and close friends.