An educational intervention to improve women's academic STEM outcomes: Divergent effects on well-represented vs. underrepresented minority women.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this field experiment was to test the effect of a social psychological intervention on an ethnically diverse sample of first-year college women majoring in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). We hypothesized that grade point averages in STEM courses would be higher in the intervention condition relative to the control condition. Furthermore, we tested competing hypotheses about the moderating role of belonging to either a well-represented (WR) or underrepresented minority (URM) ethnic group in STEM. METHOD: The sample (N = 199) included 115 women from WR ethnic groups and 84 women from URM ethnic groups who were randomly assigned to condition. Women in the intervention were educated about the harmful impact of gender stereotypes in STEM and provided with effective strategies for coping with stereotype threat. At the end of their first year, we obtained participants' academic transcripts. RESULTS: At the end of their first year in college, URM women in the intervention condition had higher grade point averages in their STEM courses than URM women in the control condition. The intervention had no effect on WR women. CONCLUSIONS: The present research demonstrates the importance of intersectional approaches to studying the experiences of women in STEM. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Ethnic variation in gender-STEM stereotypes and STEM participation: an intersectional approach.

Stereotypes associating men and masculine traits with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields are ubiquitous, but the relative strength of these stereotypes varies considerably across cultures. The present research applies an intersectional approach to understanding ethnic variation in gender-STEM stereotypes and STEM participation within an American university context. African American college women participated in STEM majors at higher rates than European American college women (Study 1, Study 2, and Study 4). Furthermore, African American women had weaker implicit gender-STEM stereotypes than European American women (Studies 2-4), and ethnic differences in implicit gender-STEM stereotypes partially mediated ethnic differences in STEM participation (Study 2 and Study 4). Although African American men had weaker implicit gender-STEM stereotypes than European American men (Study 4), ethnic differences between men in STEM participation were generally small (Study 1) or nonsignificant (Study 4). We discuss the implications of an intersectional approach for understanding the relationship between gender and STEM participation.

A culturally specific health coaching program targeting cardiovascular disease risk in South Asians: rationale, design, and baseline data.

Health coaching is an effective strategy for improving cardiovascular disease risk factors. Coaching interventions have primarily been studied in Caucasians, and the effectiveness in other ethnic groups is not known. Further, adaptation of coaching to include culturally specific components has not been studied. Our aim is to describe a culturally specific coaching program targeted at reducing cardiovascular disease risk in South Asians. Participants initially underwent comprehensive cardiovascular disease risk screening, then received individualized risk assessment and behavioral recommendations. A health coach then contacted participants regularly for one year to provide encouragement with behavior change, troubleshoot challenges, and assess adherence. In the first five years of the program, 3,180 people underwent risk assessment, 3,132 were candidates for coaching, 2,726 indicated a desire to participate in coaching, 1,359 received coaching, and 1,051 completed coaching for at least one year. Culturally specific health coaching is an appealing and feasible intervention for reducing cardiovascular disease risk in South Asians, with very low attrition. Coaching strategies for risk reduction are proven to be effective, but further longitudinal research is needed to determine whether the impact of incorporating cultural specificity improves the effectiveness. This program utilizes non-medically trained personnel as coaches and is relatively inexpensive, with potential for great cost savings in prevention of cardiovascular disease.

The merit of meritocracy.

We argue that the preference for the merit principle is a separate construct from hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies (i.e., system justification beliefs, prejudice, social dominance orientation), including descriptive beliefs that meritocracy currently exists in society. Moreover, we hypothesized that prescriptive beliefs about merit should have a stronger influence on reactions to the status quo when hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies are weak (vs. strong). In 4 studies, participants' preference for the merit principle and hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies were assessed; later, the participants evaluated organizational selection practices that support or challenge the status quo. Participants' prescriptive and descriptive beliefs about merit were separate constructs; only the latter predicted other hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies. In addition, as hypothesized, among participants who weakly endorsed hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies, the stronger their preference for the merit principle, the more they opposed selection practices that were perceived to be merit violating but the more they supported practices that were perceived to be merit restoring. In contrast, those who strongly endorsed hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies were always motivated to support the status quo, regardless of their preference for the merit principle.

White Americans' opposition to affirmative action: group interest and the harm to beneficiaries objection.

We focused on a powerful objection to affirmative action - that affirmative action harms its intended beneficiaries by undermining their self-esteem. We tested whether White Americans would raise the harm to beneficiaries objection particularly when it is in their group interest. When led to believe that affirmative action harmed Whites, participants endorsed the harm to beneficiaries objection more than when led to believe that affirmative action did not harm Whites. Endorsement of a merit-based objection to affirmative action did not differ as a function of the policy's impact on Whites. White Americans used a concern for the intended beneficiaries of affirmative action in a way that seems to further the interest of their own group.

Culture, gender, and the self: variations and impact of social comparison processes.

Psychological differences between women and men, far from being invariant as a biological explanation would suggest, fluctuate in magnitude across cultures. Moreover, contrary to the implications of some theoretical perspectives, gender differences in personality, values, and emotions are not smaller, but larger, in American and European cultures, in which greater progress has been made toward gender equality. This research on gender differences in self-construals involving 950 participants from 5 nations/cultures (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United States, and Malaysia) illustrates how variations in social comparison processes across cultures can explain why gender differences are stronger in Western cultures. Gender differences in the self are a product of self-stereotyping, which occurs when between-gender social comparisons are made. These social comparisons are more likely, and exert a greater impact, in Western nations. Both correlational and experimental evidence supports this explanation.

The psychology of engagement with indigenous identities: a cultural perspective.

In a questionnaire study among 124 students at Haskell Indian Nations University, the authors investigated the hypothesis that engagement with Indigenous identity--assessed along three dimensions including degree (identification scale), content (panethnic or tribal nation), and context (reservation or nonreservation)--can serve as a psychological resource for well-being and liberation from oppression. Consistent with this hypothesis, degree of identification was positively correlated with community efficacy and perception of racism. Apparently inconsistent with this hypothesis, degree of identification among students who had resided on a reservation was negatively correlated with the Social Self-Esteem subscale of the Current Thoughts Scale. Rather than evidence against the identity-as-resource hypothesis, this pattern may reflect the cultural grounding of self-esteem and tools designed to measure it.

Opposition to redistributive employment policies for women: the role of policy experience and group interest.

We examined whether group interest affected ideological beliefs and attitudes towards redistributive policies among men and women. We found that group interest influenced meritocratic and neo-sexist beliefs and support for gender-based affirmative action and comparable worth policies. Men and women differed in their ideological beliefs and support for the redistributive policies only when they had conscious experience with these policies. Those with policy experience expressed policy attitudes that corresponded with their gender group's interests, while those lacking such experience did not. We also noted group interest effects within each gender: men who had conscious experience with the policies expressed more opposition and greater neo-sexism and meritocratic beliefs than did men who were not consciously experienced with these policies. In contrast, consciously experienced women expressed more policy support than did their not consciously experienced counterparts. Overall, our findings indicate that group interest is an important determinant of policy attitudes and related ideological beliefs.

Perceivers' responses to in-group and out-group members who blame a negative outcome on discrimination.

The authors extend recent research concerning the social costs of claiming discrimination by examining men's and women's responses to in-group and out-group targets who either blamed a failing grade on discrimination or answer quality. Although participants generally responded more negatively to targets who blamed discrimination, rather than answer quality, dislike was greatest and gender group identification was lowest when participants evaluated an in-group target. Moreover, an in-group target who claimed discrimination was perceived as avoiding personal responsibility for outcomes to a greater extent than was a similar out-group target. Perceptions that the target avoided outcome responsibility by claiming discrimination were shown to mediate the relationship between attribution type and dislike of the in-group target. The authors discuss their results in terms of intragroup processes and suggest that social costs may especially accrue for in-group members when claiming discrimination has implications for the in-group's social identity.

Secondary hyperparathyroidism in chronic kidney disease: clinical consequences and challenges.

Secondary hyperparathyroidism, a characteristic manifestation of chronic kidney disease (CKD), arises from a series of abnormalities in the interrelated cascade that controls bone and mineral metabolism. Although bone disease is the most recognized consequence of secondary hyperparathyroidism (HPT), it also precipitates a series of potentially devastating effects on the cardiovascular, nervous, endocrine, and erythropoietic systems. Optimal management of secondary hyperparathyroidism should allow control of serum parathyroid hormone levels while preventing hyperphosphatemia, maintaining normal calcium levels, and providing adequate vitamin D supplementation. Current therapeutic approaches are frequently unsuccessful in achieving these goals and may, in fact, exacerbate risk factors that increase morbidity and mortality in the dialysis population. Development of new therapeutic approaches may provide improved control of secondary hyperparathyroidism in the future.