Improving Stem Doctoral Students’ Relationships With Their Advisors: Web Based Training In Interpersonal Problem Solving

Abstract

She currently works as the lead research assistant of evaluation on CareerWISE, an NSF-funded project aimed at strengthening women doctoral students' persistence in STEM fields. She earned her M.S. in General Psychology from DePaul University, and she has BS degrees in psychology and sociology from Iowa State University. Her broad research interests include interpersonal theory and the examination of the interpersonal factors that may influence the well-being of gifted and perfectionistic populations. Erin Kube, Arizona State University Erin Kube is a first-year School Psychology doctoral student at Arizona State University. She is currently working as a graduate research assistant for CareerWISE, an NSF-funded project that evaluates persistence of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics doctoral programs. She has a BA in Clinical Counseling Psychology from Washington College. Her research interests include women's academic persistence, success, and self-perceived ability.

Gender Differences in Aspirations and Attainment

“…Others have demonstrated the importance of personal supports and a wide range of factors affecting subjective perceptions in sustaining females' interest, persistence, and success in STEM i elds and careers, including: perceived similarity to others in a i eld; stereotypes embodied in physical environments (e.g., the physical characteristics of classrooms); encouragement from peers, mentors, and role models ; and positive relationships with advisors (Anderson-Rowland, Bernstein, & Russo, 2007 ;Cheryan, Plaut, Davies, & Steele, 2009 ;Rohli ng et al, 2009 ). In addition to these proximal inl uences, recent research suggests that more fundamental differences in the status and welfare of women have a powerful role to play in explaining the cross-national variability in gender gaps that persist (Else-Quest, Hyde, & Linn, 2010 ).…”

Examining how graduate advisors mitigate or exacerbate the structural barriers Women of Color navigate in STEM doctoral programs.

“…Receipt of graduate advising behaviors aligned with instrumental and psychosocial support has been linked to academic outcomes such as STEM persistence, academic satisfaction, measures of productivity, and career attainment (Council of Graduate Schools, 2010; Lunsford, 2012; Posselt, 2018; Sheehy, 2019). Doctoral women in STEM who have strong and frequent interactions with their advisors are more likely to graduate than those who interact minimally with their advisors (Rohlfing et al, 2010). Additionally, students who completed their PhD programs were twice as likely as noncompleters to be “very satisfied” with their advisors, while noncompleters were more likely to be “not too satisfied” or “not satisfied at all” with their advisors (Lovitts, 2001).…”