Rosanna E. Guadagno - US grants

Intellectual Merit: Career choices are the result of a complex process and are influenced by a myriad of factors: 1) social-contextual influences such as classroom environment and culturally shared gender stereotypes, 2) person-attribute characteristics such as math and science ability and personal gender schemas, and 3) life goals, especially those related to work, marriage, and family. The individual making a career decision must integrate information from all three areas, yet researchers rarely reach beyond constructs in their own research paradigm. This hinders the development of an explanation of why some capable girls choose science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers and others do not. This research integrates the three broad areas of research (social-contextual, person-attribute, and life goals) by systematically assessing the relative importance of these factors in career choices during four key educational transition points: Transition from grade school to middle school, transition from middle school to high school, at the end of high school, and at the start of college. Existing classroom programs are then mapped on to the research findings to identify strategies for promoting interest in STEM careers that are likely to be most effective at different points in education.

Broader Impacts: Research focusing on educational and developmental transitions especially benefits STEM education programs by matching these programs with the interests and needs of girls at different time points in schooling, connecting classroom practices to eventual STEM career choices. A main goal of this project is to inform educators about which classroom strategies and extracurricular programs are most effective for enhancing STEM career choices at different time points in education. With the assistance of an advisory panel, the research plan calls for the creation of a compendium that translates the research findings into key issues for supporting interest in STEM careers at different educational time points and identifies resources to address these issues. The end product is presented in the Classroom Connections Guide: Closing the Gender Gap that will be widely disseminated through professional development programs, teacher training, presentations at national professional meetings as well as to STEM college professors, deans, and administrative staff at the University of Alabama and other universities.

Intellectual Merit: The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa is investigating how life goals and gender roles interact to effect changes in STEM career interests and college majors over the course of the college years. The study will: a) systematically examine multiple aspects of communal goals, including marriage, family, and helping; b) investigate the impact of romantic relationship goals and the gender roles that accompany them in predicting women?s STEM interest; and c) examine how Biology majors, where women are more represented, compare to other STEM majors with respect to life goals and gender roles. The project will meet these objectives through a longitudinal study of college students who are considering a major in STEM. First and third year STEM students will be surveyed about their life goals, perceptions of gender roles, and career interests at three time points approximately one year apart. A subset of women in serious romantic relationships and their partners will complete additional measures about their expectations for their future work, relationship, and family roles. The research will document changes in majors and career interests and their association with changes in life goals and perceptions of gender roles. Both survey and experimental methods are used to measure these constructs.

Broader Impacts: The proposed research will fill a significant gap in what educators know and understand about STEM career decisions during the critical college years and thus can facilitate the development of strategies for retaining more women in STEM majors. In particular, if women can be shown ways in which important life goals can be met while having a STEM career, they may be more likely to remain in a STEM field. Research infrastructure will be improved by forging relationships between professionals involved in STEM education research and practice with those with more basic psychological research interests, leading to cross-fertilization between practice and research.

This project investigates how interactions on social media such as Facebook (FB) impacted the behavior of people affected by the tornado that hit Tuscaloosa, AL on April, 27, 2011. It will examine how interactions on FB influenced preparations prior to the disaster (e.g., by influencing people to take cover), the mobilization of recovery efforts (e.g., by spreading information on recovery efforts) and the psychological functioning of victims (e.g., by communicating with friends and family and providing social support). FB posts will be qualitatively analyzed to determine (a) the spread of information (contagiousness); (b) normative expectations; and (c) emotional functioning and support provided at each time point. A subsequent survey will examine how FB usage (past and present) impacts on psychological functioning three and six months after the storm.

Intellectual merit: The project will provide new scientific knowledge about how social influence processes affect perceived social support and psychological well being after disasters. Specifically, the project will extend the prior literature on social networks by (a) examining the impact of social influence processes as well as the spread of images on coping in online social networks such as FB; (b) focusing on the warning phase of an impending disaster in addition to the aftermath; (c) examine both the victims of the disaster as well as members of their social networks and how appeals for social and monetary support spread; and (d) assessing individual coping at multiple time points.

Broader impacts. The results will provide new insights into how to optimize communication after disaster, leading to better preparation, better mobilization of recovery efforts, and better psychological coping. Results will be disseminated widely to disaster planners, researchers and practitioners through conference presentations, journal publications, data sharing, and via a dedicated website disseminating the methodology and results of the project. In addition, the project will help train new investigators in the area of crisis communication, will fuel student theses and dissertations, and will provide mentorship opportunities for undergraduate students from underrepresented groups.