Underrepresented Minority Status Research Articles

Virtual Residency Interviews: Applicant Perceptions Regarding Virtual Interview Effectiveness, Advantages, and Barriers.

Studies of the virtual interview format are needed to inform medical residency program leaders as they plan for future virtual interview seasons. In the current study, completed in 2021, we sought to assess applicant perspectives of virtual interview effectiveness, advantages, and barriers, including factors that might impact equity and inclusion. Interviewees applying to 7 residency programs and 2 clinical psychology programs at an academic medical center in the Pacific Northwest completed a post-interview survey. A total of 565 of 1429 interviewees (40%) completed the survey. A vast majority (83%-96%) agreed virtual interviews were effective in each measured domain, except for learning institutional culture (352 of 565, 62%). Many also found information regarding social/living environments inadequate. Participants selected advantages to virtual interviews more frequently than disadvantages. Commonly selected advantages included cost savings, time efficiency, reduced burden of travel, and reduced carbon footprint. Disadvantages included time zone differences, access to an appropriate interview setting, and reliable access to internet. The majority of interviewees (84%, 456 of 542) desired to keep a component of virtual interviews in the future. There were no significant disparities in results based on gender, rural/suburban/urban location, race, or underrepresented minority status. Virtual interviews were perceived as effective, more advantageous than burdensome, and widely acceptable, with no disparities in these findings by included demographic characteristics.

Supplemental Essays for Residency Applications: The Modern Day Typewriter

The purpose of this study is to evaluate one institution's use of a supplemental essay and its effect on the total number and demographics of applicants as compared to previous years. A retrospective cohort review of candidates applying to our institution's Orthopedic Surgery residency program in the 2020 to 2021 cycle was performed. All applicants were presented a prompt for a short supplemental essay. Only candidates who completed the essay were considered for an invitation to interview. Differences in proportions of female and under-represented minority (URM) applicants associated with the year of application and with essay completion were evaluated. A similar analysis was also performed to assess differences in demographics of interviewees between years. A single academic medical center providing tertiary care. All orthopedic residency applicants from the 2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021 cycles. Of 863 applicants in 2021, 506 (59%) completed the supplemental essay. URM status was significantly associated with application year and essay completion. However, demographics of eligible applicants and interviewees were not significantly associated with the application year, nor were the proportion of female or URM candidates offered an interview. Our analysis based on use of the supplemental essay in one application cycle demonstrated that it was effective in reducing the application review burden by approximately 41.4% without adversely affecting the demographics of the interviewee pool.

OP030: Parenting stress raising children with sex chromosome aneuploidies: First year of life results from the eXtraordinarY Babies study

OP030: Parenting stress raising children with sex chromosome aneuploidies: First year of life results from the eXtraordinarY Babies study

The role of teachers and schools in explaining STEM outcome gaps

We develop a novel methodology to explore the extent to which teacher and school assignments between fourth and eighth grade contribute to inequalities between advantaged and disadvantaged students—as defined by underrepresented minority (URM) status and eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch (FRL)—in their eighth-grade math and science test scores and high school math and science course-taking. We find that differences between advantaged and disadvantaged students in teacher and school assignments predict about 25% of the eighth-grade math test gaps, 10% of the eighth-grade science test gaps, and 35% of the gaps in advanced math course-taking. For science course-taking, school and teacher assignments predict about 20% of the URM gap and 10% of the FRL gap. While this methodology does not permit causal conclusions, the results are robust to analyses of a subsample in which students do not appear to be assigned to teachers based on prior test achievement.

Effect of race, gender identity, and their intersection on career satisfaction: A cross-sectional survey of academic physicians

Purpose Ensuring a representative workforce is a matter of equity and social justice and has implications for patient care and population health. We examined the relationship of the binary gender identity and race of physicians who felt comfortable to self-identify, with workplace experiences and career satisfaction in academic medicine. Methods The outcome of interest of a cross-sectional survey of full-time clinical faculty members within the Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, was physician’s self-reported career satisfaction. Using logistic regression, we examined relationships of binary gender identity (female/male) and race [under-represented minority (URM) versus over-represented in medicine (ORM)] to: workplace experiences (respectful interactions, perception of having to work harder, exclusion from social networks, witnessing/experiencing unprofessionalism, and confidence in taking action to address incivility without reprisal); and career satisfaction, controlling for age, rank, protected time, and workplace experiences. Results Female gender and URM status were associated with younger age, lower rank, and less positive workplace experiences. 132 respondents (44.4%) strongly agreed they had career satisfaction. Compared with ORM men, career satisfaction was significantly lower for URM and ORM female physicians (OR 0.30, 95% CI 0.14–0.65, and 0.48, 95% CI 0.27–0.85, respectively) and non-significantly lower for URM male physicians (OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.32–1.19). Adjustment for academic rank and workplace experiences fully attenuated these relationships. Conclusions URM female academic physicians had lower career satisfaction than their ORM male counterparts, largely explained by systematic differences in workplace experiences, particularly perceptions of exclusion from social networks and having to work harder to be perceived as legitimate scholars. This suggests a role for institutions and leaders to build inclusive, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive cultures to support the flourishing of all faculty.

The Changing Landscape of Doctoral Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: PhD Students, Faculty Advisors, and Preferences for Varied Career Options.

The landscape of graduate science education is changing as efforts to diversify the professoriate have increased because academic faculty jobs at universities have grown scarce and more competitive. With this context as a backdrop, the present research examines the perceptions and career goals of advisors and advisees through surveys of PhD students (Study 1, N = 195) and faculty mentors (Study 2, N = 272) in science, technology, engineering, and math disciplines. Study 1 examined actual preferences and career goals of PhD students among three options: research careers, teaching careers, and non-academic careers in industry, and compared the actual preferences of students with what they perceived as being the normative preferences of faculty. Overall, students had mixed preferences but perceived that their advisors had a strong normative preference for research careers for them. Moreover, students who ranked research positions as most desirable felt the most belonging in their academic departments. Further analyses revealed no differences in career preferences as a function of underrepresented minority (URM) student status or first-generation (FG) status, but URM and FG students felt less belonging in their academic departments. Study 2 examined faculty preferences for different careers for their advisees, both in general and for current students in particular. While faculty advisors preferred students to go into research in general, when focusing on specific students, they saw their preferences as being closely aligned with the career preference of each PhD student. Faculty advisors did not perceive any difference in belonging between their students as a function of their URM status. Discrepancies between student and faculty perceptions may occur, in part, because faculty and students do not engage in sufficient discussions about the wider range of career options beyond academic research. Supporting this possibility, PhD students and faculty advisors reported feeling more comfortable discussing research careers with each other than either non-academic industry positions or teaching positions. Discussion centers on the implications of these findings for interpersonal and institutional efforts to foster diversity in the professoriate and to create open communication about career development.

Utility value trajectories and their relationship with behavioral engagement and performance in introductory statistics

This study examined utility value trajectories overall and by gender, race, and underrepresented racial minority (URM) status within an introductory statistics course and tested the relationships between utility value, behavioral engagement, and performance. Data from 1108 undergraduates included three surveys integrated into their online textbook (t1: beginning of the textbook; t2: middle of the textbook; t3: end of the textbook). On average, utility value declined from t1 to t2. There were no significant differences by gender, however, latent change models revealed significant differences between URM and non-URM students: While Black, Latinx, and racially minoritized students continued to experience a decline in utility value from t2 to t3, White and Asian students did not. Utility value was reciprocally related to behavioral engagement during the learning process, and both utility value (t3) and behavioral engagement (t1 and t2) predicted final course grades. The findings highlight the need for a deeper understanding of short-term relationships between utility value, behavioral engagement, and performance as well as the ongoing concern for how best to support students who identify with underrepresented groups in STEM.

Context Matters: Social Psychological Factors That Underlie Academic Performance across Seven Institutions.

To enhance equity and diversity in undergraduate biology, recent research in biology education focuses on best practices that reduce learning barriers for all students and improve academic performance. However, the majority of current research into student experiences in introductory biology takes place at large, predominantly White institutions. To foster contextual knowledge in biology education research, we harnessed data from a large research coordination network to examine the extent of academic performance gaps based on demographic status across institutional contexts and how two psychological factors, test anxiety and ethnicity stigma consciousness, may mediate performance in introductory biology. We used data from seven institutions across three institution types: 2-year community colleges, 4-year inclusive institutions (based on admissions selectivity; hereafter, inclusive), and 4-year selective institutions (hereafter, selective). In our sample, we did not observe binary gender gaps across institutional contexts, but found that performance gaps based on underrepresented minority status were evident at inclusive and selective 4-year institutions, but not at community colleges. Differences in social psychological factors and their impacts on academic performance varied substantially across institutional contexts. Our findings demonstrate that institutional context can play an important role in the mechanisms underlying performance gaps.

Contrasting 4 Year Outcomes Associated With Introduction to Management Courses

Management faculty members have had a longstanding interest in the design of the Introduction to Management Course as it presents an opportune point to provide students with the foundational skills for success in their Management Studies. Since many Management majors take these courses during their freshman year in the university, the courses are, intentionally or not, also settings for helping students transition to the university both academically and socially. This paper reports on a study of the 4-year outcomes associated with this potential of Introduction to Management courses to help with students’ transition into university-level studies. Specifically, it contrasts 4-year graduation outcomes among three different Introduction to Management courses taken by a freshman business student cohort of a large, public, university. The study results show a course that focused on life skill building was associated with better 4-year graduation outcomes than theory-driven and business overview classes. Contrary to expectations, the study indicated that there were no significant differences among students enrolled in the classes in terms of other important student characteristics known to impact graduation rates, including underrepresented minority (URM) and first-generation status, SAT or ACT scores, self-reported GPA, and exposure to university-level URM student success and achievement programs.

College entrance exam‐taking strategies in Georgia

AbstractUsing administrative data from Georgia, we provide the first study of the full set of college entrance exam‐taking strategies, including who takes the ACT and the SAT (or both), when they take the exams, and how many times they take each exam. We have several main findings. First, one‐third of exam takers take both the ACT and SAT. Second, we see pronounced disparities in several measures of exam‐taking strategy by free‐ and reduced‐price lunch status, even after including a rich set of controls, but not by underrepresented minority status. Third, we find evidence that taking more total exams leads to higher admissions‐relevant test scores and a higher likelihood of enrolling in colleges with relatively high graduation rates and earnings. However, these relationships with test scores and college enrollment are smaller for those who take both the ACT and SAT, as opposed to retaking the same exam multiple times.

Single Ophthalmology Program Trends in Resident Surgical and Research Productivity by Gender, Underrepresented Minority Status, and Welcoming a Child

Abstract Objective The aim of the study is to identify differences for cataract surgery, total procedural volume, and publication rates between residents by gender, underrepresented minority (URM) status, and welcoming a child during ophthalmology residency. Design This is a retrospective, cross-sectional study. Participants A total of 89 residents graduating from 2002 to 2020 at a single program were included. Methods A multiple linear regression model was created to determine factors predictive of the number of cataract surgeries performed as the primary surgeon, total procedural volume, number of publications, or first author publications. Independent variables included resident gender, URM status, PhD degree, welcoming a child during residency, and graduation year. Results Of the 89 graduating residents included in this study, identifying as female (45 women, 50.6%) and as URM (eight identifying as URM, 9.0%) was not associated with a difference in surgical or research volume. Female residents performed a mean (SD) of 240.1 (55.1) cataract surgeries while male residents performed 210.6 (46.1) cataract surgeries. Residents identifying as URM completed 228.1 (41.9), while non-URM residents completed 234.8 (51.9) cataract surgeries. Since 2008, eight female residents (22.2%) and two male residents (6.9%) added children to their families. Welcoming a child to the family was also not associated with decreased surgical or publication volume. Number of cataract surgeries, total procedures, and number of publications did increase over time (p <0.001), as each graduation year was associated with 5.4 (95% CI: 3.9, 7.1) more cataract surgeries and 30.5 (95% CI: 25.7, 36.9) more procedures. Each year was also associated with 0.24 (95% CI: 0.09, 0.38) more publications and 0.18 (95% CI: 0.08, 0.28) more first author publications. Conclusion Surgical and research productivity has increased, and female residents and residents who identify as URM did not have fewer cataract surgeries or procedures. Welcoming a child also did not correlate with differences in surgical or procedural volume. Programs should continue to promote equitable surgery and procedural distributions as well as identify more targeted strategies to encourage and recruit underrepresented medical students into ophthalmology.

Diversity in Economics Seminars: Who Gives Invited Talks?

Invited seminar talks are a primary way that economists get feedback on their work, disseminate their research, and build their professional networks. In this paper, we present descriptive evidence on who gave invited seminar talks in economics. We use a balanced panel of 66 departments between August 2014 and December 2019, focusing on the gender and underrepresented minority (URM) status of the speakers. We find that 76 percent of the talks in our sample were given by non-URM men, 23 percent by non-URM women, and less than 1 percent each by URM men and URM women. These averages mask substantial heterogeneity across departments.

Mentoring Experiences and Publication Productivity among Early Career Biomedical Investigators and Trainees.

To identify which mentoring domains influence publication productivity among early career researchers and trainees and whether publication productivity differs between underrepresented minority (URM) and well-represented groups (WRGs). The mentoring aspects that promote publication productivity remain unclear. Advancing health equity requires a diverse workforce, yet URM trainees are less likely to publish and URM investigators are less likely to obtain federal research grants, relative to WRG counterparts. A mentoring-focused online follow-up survey was administered to respondents of the NRMN Annual Survey who self-identified as mentees. Publications were identified from a public database and validated with participant CV data. Bivariate and multivariate analyses tested the associations of publication productivity with mentoring domains. URM investigators and trainees had fewer publications (M = 7.3) than their WRG counterparts (M = 13.8). Controlling for career stage and social characteristics, those who worked on funded projects, and received grant-writing or research mentorship, had a higher probability of any publications. Controlling for URM status, gender, and career stage, mentorship on grant-writing and funding was positively associated with publication count (IRR=1.72). Holding career stage, gender, and mentoring experiences constant, WRG investigators and trainees had more publications than their URM counterparts (IRR=1.66). Grant-writing mentorship is particularly important for publication productivity. Future research should investigate whether grant-writing mentorship differentially impacts URM and WRG investigators and should investigate how and why grant-writing mentorship fosters increased publication productivity.

A Randomized Study to Assess the Effect of Including the Graduate Record Examinations Results on Reviewer Scores for Underrepresented Minorities.

Whether requiring Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) results for doctoral applicants affects the diversity of admitted cohorts remains uncertain. This study randomized applications to 2 population-health doctoral programs at the University of California San Francisco to assess whether masking reviewers to applicant GRE results differentially affects reviewers’ scores for underrepresented minority (URM) applicants from 2018–2020. Applications with GRE results and those without were randomly assigned to reviewers to designate scores for each copy (1–10, 1 being best). URM was defined as self-identification as African American/Black, Filipino, Hmong, Vietnamese, Hispanic/Latinx, Native American/Alaska Native, or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander. We used linear mixed models with random effects for the applicant and fixed effects for each reviewer to evaluate the effect of masking the GRE results on the overall application score and whether this effect differed by URM status. Reviewer scores did not significantly differ for unmasked versus masked applications among non-URM applicants (β = 0.15; 95% CI: −0.03, 0.33) or URM applicants (β = 0.02, 95% CI: −0.49, 0.54). We did not find evidence that removing GREs differentially affected URM compared with non-URM students (β for interaction = −0.13, 95% CI: −0.55, 0.29). Within these doctoral programs, results indicate that GRE scores neither harm nor help URM applicants.

College Students' Reasons for Leaving Biomedical Fields: Disenchantment with Biomedicine or Attraction to Other Fields?

This study examined whether students who left biomedical fields of study during college did so primarily because they became disenchanted with those fields or because they felt attracted to alternative fields of study. We identified 1193 students intending to pursue biomedical fields of study early in college, collected data about their beliefs and performance throughout college, and interviewed them near graduation about their future plans. Descriptively, we examined the topics students discussed as affecting their attrition decisions. Predictive research aims were to determine how academic performance, interest, and demographic factors predicted students' likelihood of overall attrition and likelihood of reporting distinct reasons for attrition. Among the 192 students who left biomedical fields, 62.5% described leaving only in terms of feeling disenchanted, whereas 37.4% expressed that they left at least in part due to feeling attracted towards non-biomedical fields. Most students who left biomedical fields expressed changing plans for reasons related to interest; this was especially prevalent among students who reported leaving due to attraction towards non-biomedical fields. Predictive analyses showed that interest in biology and grades at the end of an introductory biology course predicted the likelihood of overall attrition and likelihood of leaving due to feeling disenchantment, whereas underrepresented ethnic minority status predicted these outcomes positively. Interest and course grades also predicted the likelihood of students leaving due to feeling attraction towards other fields, but interest was a stronger predictor relative to grades. Results highlight distinct types of attrition that may have implications for policies to promote STEM retention.

Chemistry self-efficacy in lower-division chemistry courses: changes after a semester of instruction and gaps still remain between student groups

Chemistry self-efficacy (CSE) was identified as a critical affective construct to predict student success in chemistry classrooms. We surveyed students at the beginning and toward the end of a semester to measure students’ CSE beliefs in introductory and general chemistry courses at a Hispanic-serving institution in the United States. First, the relationships between CSE (initial and toward the end) and student achievement measured by course GPA were examined. Second, trends of changes in student CSE beliefs over a semester in relation to several aspects of student characteristics including course level, gender, underrepresented minority (URM) status were investigated. Lastly, the gaps in specific areas of CSE still remain between student groups after a semester of instruction were revealed. The results showed that CSE toward the end of the semester significantly predicted students’ course GPA in lower-division chemistry courses. Even though the CSE of different student groups all increased to some extent after a semester of instruction, the levels of changes were influenced significantly by certain factors such as course level and URM status but not gender. While URM students' CSE beliefs increased more than non-URM students after a semester of instruction, there were still gaps in certain areas between the two student groups. The remaining gaps in CSE beliefs between URM and non-URM students were found to be in the areas of interpreting chemical equations and choosing appropriate formulas to solve chemistry problems. Meanwhile, students who completed introductory chemistry still lagged behind in interpreting chemical equations as compared to students who completed general chemistry. Research literature related to these two specific areas in CSE with gaps between student groups was reviewed, instructional strategies and research directions along with theoretical perspectives for closing those equity gaps in college lower-division chemistry classrooms are discussed.

A Nationwide Survey of Program Directors on Resident Attrition in Emergency Medicine.

IntroductionDespite the burdens that resident attrition places upon programs and fellow trainees, emergency medicine (EM) as a specialty has only begun to explore the issue. Our primary objectives were to quantify attrition in EM residency programs and elucidate the reasons behind it. Our secondary objectives were to describe demographic characteristics of residents undergoing attrition, personal factors associated with attrition, and methods of resident replacement.MethodsWe conducted a national survey study of all EM program directors (PDs) during the 2018–2019 academic year. PDs were asked to identify all residents who had left their program prior to completion of training within the last four academic years (2015–2016 to 2018–2019), provide relevant demographic information, select perceived reasons for attrition, and report any resident replacements. Frequencies, percentages, proportions, and 95% confidence intervals were obtained for program- and resident-specific demographics. We performed Fisher’s exact tests to compare reasons for attrition between age groups.ResultsOf 217 PDs successfully contacted, 118 completed the questionnaire (response rate of 54%). A third of programs (39 of 118) reported at least one resident attrition. A total of 52 residents underwent attrition. Attrition was most likely to occur prior to completion of two years of training. Gender and underrepresented minority status were not associated with attrition. Older residents were more likely to leave due to academic challenges. The most common reported reason for attrition was to switch specialties. Resident replacement was found in 42% of cases.ConclusionOne-third of programs were affected by resident attrition. Gender and underrepresented minority status were not associated with attrition.

Using machine learning to identify the most at-risk students in physics classes

Machine learning algorithms have recently been used to predict students' performance in an introductory physics class. The prediction model classified students as those likely to receive an A or B or students likely to receive a grade of C, D, F or withdraw from the class. Early prediction could better allow the direction of educational interventions and the allocation of educational resources. However, the performance metrics used in that study become unreliable when used to classify whether a student would receive an A, B or C (the ABC outcome) or if they would receive a D, F or withdraw (W) from the class (the DFW outcome) because the outcome is substantially unbalanced with between 10\% to 20\% of the students receiving a D, F, or W. This work presents techniques to adjust the prediction models and alternate model performance metrics more appropriate for unbalanced outcome variables. These techniques were applied to three samples drawn from introductory mechanics classes at two institutions ($N=7184$, $1683$, and $926$). Applying the same methods as the earlier study produced a classifier that was very inaccurate, classifying only 16\% of the DFW cases correctly; tuning the model increased the DFW classification accuracy to 43\%. Using a combination of institutional and in-class data improved DFW accuracy to 53\% by the second week of class. As in the prior study, demographic variables such as gender, underrepresented minority status, first-generation college student status, and low socioeconomic status were not important variables in the final prediction models.

The Gender of Radiation Oncologists Treating Breast and Genitourinary Cancers at US Comprehensive Cancer Centers

Unfortunately, the representation of women in the Radiation Oncology workforce in the United States has long been disproportionate to that of women among medical school graduates and academic faculty throughout medicine.1 2 Over the past three decades, the representation of women in the academic Radiation Oncology workforce has risen approximately 0.3% per year,3 which would take 50 years to result in gender equality in faculty positions.4 5 Even at the recent increased rate of women representation in Radiation Oncology residency of 1.5% per year between the classes of 2016 and 2022, there would remain a substantial period of time for this increase in resident representation to translate into achieving gender equity in the academic workforce.6 Certain cancer disease sites are dominated by patients of a particular gender; two of the largest being breast cancer and genitourinary cancer (given that prostate cancer treatment is far more common than treatment of other malignancies of the genitourinary system that affect men and women alike). We sought to evaluate the present-day Radiation Oncology workforce in these two subspecialities to determine the gender makeup of Radiation Oncology providers comprising these fields. A compilation of radiation oncologists treating breast cancer and genitourinary cancer was obtained from internet searches of the 51 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centres in the United States from August–September 2019. Under-represented minority status (defined as African-American race and/or Hispanic ethnicity) was documented as previously described.7 Data were subsequently analysed using t-tests and Fischer’s exact test, with statistical significance assigned at p<0.05 (GraphPad Software, San Diego, California, USA) and ORs accompanied …

Gender-Based Analysis of the Academic Pediatric Radiation Oncology Workforce

Pediatric radiation oncology represents a small yet essential aspect of the field. The demographic makeup of the pediatric academic radiation oncology workforce has not been previously investigated. The 51 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers were examined by internet investigation in September 2019. Data collected for each radiation oncologist included gender, year of medical school graduation, institution of employment, level of professorship, underrepresented minority status (African-American race and/or Hispanic ethnicity), and departmental leadership position (chair and/or program director). Variables were coalesced for statistical analysis using Fisher’s exact test. Among 993 total radiation oncologists, 79 pediatric radiation oncologists (8%) were identified, of whom 45.6% are women. 39.2% are assistant professors, 30.4% are associate professors, and 30.4% are full professors; 5% are underrepresented minorities. Eleven percent of pediatric radiation oncologists are department chairs, of whom 78% are men. Women comprise 42% of assistant professors, 54.2% of associate professors, and 41.7% of full professors, along with 50% of underrepresented minorities; these numbers exceed overall female representation in academic radiation oncology. Compared to the proportion of women outside of the pediatric academic radiation oncology workforce at each level of appointment, women were significantly less likely to be assistant professors (p = 0.007) and more likely to be full professors (p = 0.047), with no significant difference in the likelihood of associate professorship (p = 0.229). Overall, female representation was significantly higher in pediatric than non-pediatric academic radiation oncology (p = 0.012). Pediatric radiation oncology comprises less than 10% of the academic radiation oncology workforce, with the majority of academic pediatric radiation oncologists being men. The proportion of women significantly exceeds their overall representation in academic radiation oncology, which is statistically significant for full professorship. These findings indicate that unlike academic radiation oncology in general, women in pediatric radiation oncology find fewer barriers in achieving full professorship. These results deserve further investigation.