A US National Study of Barriers to Science Training Experienced by Undergraduate Students during COVID-19.

Undergraduate research is a high-impact practice on college campuses. How the COVID-19 pandemic has affected undergraduate researchers' progress is poorly understood. We examine how demographics, academic characteristics, research disruptions and faculty mentorship are associated with four barriers to research progress. Data are drawn from a survey of over 1000 undergraduate student researchers across the US. We examine students who actively continued to conduct faculty-mentored research during mid-March/April 2020 (n = 485). Using generalized estimating equations that control clustering by institution, we found economic hardship, discomfort teleconferencing, lower quality mentors, sexual minority status and higher grade point averages were associated with motivation problems. Economic hardship, serious illness, Internet connection issues, a lack of face-to-face meetings and lower a frequency of mentor-mentee communication were associated with a time crunch with regard to conducting research. Discomfort teleconferencing, Internet connection issues, a lack of face-to-face meetings and decrease in research workload were associated with task uncertainty. Economic hardship, serious illness and being an engineering major were associated with lacking needed tools for the research. In sum, economic hardship was an important correlate of research barriers, as were communication challenges and sexual minority status. Results can inform practical actions by research program directors and faculty undergraduate research mentors.

Anxiety and depression among US college students engaging in undergraduate research during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: The objective was to examine mental health of undergraduate researchers (UGRs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. PARTICIPANTS: We surveyed 962 UGRs who were conducting research in Spring 2020 at over 100 US universities. METHODS: We conducted an online survey in July 2020. We analyzed data using descriptive statistics and multivariable generalized estimating equations. RESULTS: 63% reported at least mild anxiety and 73% reported at least mild depression based on GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scores; 15.2% reported severe anxiety (score ≥ 15) and 23.4% reported severe depression (score ≥ 15). More COVID-19-related adverse event experiences were associated with more severe anxiety and depression, as were first-generation status, woman gender, and LGBQ status. Greater social support was protective, and significantly more so for men (vs. women) and continuing generation (vs. first generation) students. CONCLUSION: Faculty have an important role in the mental health of their mentees. Additional interventions are needed to better support women and first-generation students.Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at.