Abstract
Developing research self-efficacy is an important part of doctoral student preparation. Despite the documented importance of research self-efficacy, little is known about the progression of doctoral students’ research self-efficacy over time in general and for students from minoritized groups. This study examined both within- and between-person stability of research self-efficacy from semester to semester over 4 years, focusing on doctoral students in biological sciences (N = 336). Using random intercept autoregressive analyses, we evaluated differences in stability across gender, racially minoritized student status, and first-generation student status. Results showed similar mean levels of self-efficacy across demographic groups and across time. However, there were notable differences in between-person and within-person stability over time, specifically showing higher between-person and lower within-person stability for racially minoritized and first-generation students. These findings indicate that racially minoritized and first-generation students’ research self-efficacy reports were less consistent from semester to semester. Such results may indicate that non-minoritized and continuing-generation students’ experiences from semester to semester typically reinforce their beliefs about their own abilities related to conducting research, while such is not the case for racially minoritized nor first-generation students. Future research should examine what types of experiences impact self-efficacy development across doctoral study to offer more precise insights about factors that influence these differences in within-person stability.
Highlights
Self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997) is defined as one’s belief about their ability to be successful in a given domain (Multon et al, 1991; Zimmerman et al, 1992)
Does the between-person stability of research self-efficacy vary across racially minoritized (RM) status, first-generation student status, or gender?
RM and first-generation college students show a noticeable drop in the within-person stability of those beliefs on the basis of the beliefs they held in prior semesters, despite mean levels of self-efficacy being essentially equivalent compared to White/Asian and continuinggeneration students
Summary
Self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997) is defined as one’s belief about their ability to be successful in a given domain (Multon et al, 1991; Zimmerman et al, 1992). Of interest in doctoral student training is the development of research self-efficacy, which has been identified as an important part of preparing doctoral students to pursue independent research and academic success. Doctoral students may struggle with developing or sustaining research self-efficacy due to high-stress training environments or the impostor phenomenon, which is when accomplished individuals attribute successes to “fraudulence, fooling others, and luck instead of their own hard work or ability” Such a struggle may negatively affect known associated outcomes, including research productivity and academic career success
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