Search results

Although a significant share of undergraduates, first-generation college students (FGCS) remain difficult to characterize. Consequently, academic libraries are challenged to identify the services most important to FGCS. This study measured the perceived importance of and satisfaction with library services among undergraduate students at an R1 land-grant university. The study further compared FGCS’s perceptions of library services with those of their non-first generation peers.

The authors measured importance and satisfaction using the Measuring Information Services Outcomes (“MISO”) Survey. They further analyzed responses according to first-generation status. The authors then compared mean scores and used the Wilcoxon rank-sum test to find statistical differences in perceived importance and satisfaction between first-generation and non-first-generation respondents.

The difference between first-generation and non-first-generation student responses was statistically significant for 35% of library services. FGCS rated library services higher than their non-first-generation peers for both importance and satisfaction. FGCS perceived library services related to physical spaces and access/discovery as most important. Library services that provide student support or access to technology showed strong evidence of difference between first-generation and non-first-generation student responses. The authors also determined the MISO Survey is a measure for assessing FGCS perceptions of library services.

This study adds quantitative evidence to research on FGCS and academic libraries, further demonstrating the importance of library services to FGCS.

First-generation students (FGS) experience numerous challenges during their studies because of their background attributes and lack of social capital required to navigate institutions of higher learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of perceived social support and a sense of belonging on academic persistence among FGS at a distance e-learning institution in South Africa.

A cross-sectional quantitative research approach was employed. The sample comprised 240 undergraduate students. While multiple linear regression analysis was used to assess the influence of perceived social support and sense of belonging on academic persistence, mediation analysis was used to test for the mediating effect of sense of belonging on the relationship between perceived social support and academic persistence.

The results revealed that while perceived family support, perceived friendship support and perceived support from others did not significantly predict academic persistence, a sense of belonging significantly predicted academic persistence. The results also demonstrated that a sense of belonging significantly mediated the relationship between perceived family support and academic persistence. Further, the sense of belonging significantly mediated the relationship between perceived support from others and academic persistence.

The results of the study imply that distance learning institutions should strengthen student support mechanisms and institute steps to create learning environments that engender belongingness to enable students to persist academically and reach their academic goals.

This study outlines practical strategies that distance learning institutions could use to enhance support and bolster belongingness among students to help them complete their studies.

This work analyzes female immigrants’ integration in the dimensions of education, labor market participation and fertility in 15 European countries, considering individual characteristics, including cultural background, host countries’ attitudes towards immigrants, the role of women in the family and country-specific integration policy. All these aspects taken together are crucial to understand the main patterns of integration focusing on gender differences.

We focus on second- and first-generation male and female immigrants between the age of 25 and 41, with a length of stay of at least ten years. Enrollment ratios for tertiary education in parents’ countries, the total fertility rate and the female labor force in the mother’s country represent ethnic background. Diversity in the destination regions is captured by local attitudes towards immigrants, the perceived role of women and national policies to integrate migrants [Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX)]. The data are drawn from the European Social Survey (ESS) for 2010–2018. Our results are based on ordinary least squares (OLS) and logit estimates; multilevel analysis was conducted.

We find significant evidence of gender role transmission from mother to daughter; age at immigration seems to be crucial to examine the importance of the culture of origin among immigrants. However, females are responsive to attitudes toward immigrants and gender equality in receiving societies, while integration policies, by defining the set of opportunities, may contribute to both genders’ tertiary education and women’s probability of being in the labor force.

This work underlines that integration policies favoring equal rights as nationals may contribute to both women’s tertiary education and their probability of being in the labor force.

We explore female integration in Europe in the dimensions of education, labor market, fertility and the role of both immigrants’ cultural heritage and specific aspects of destination countries. Previous research, particularly in the USA, has generally focused on some of these features at the expense of a more comprehensive approach. This study builds upon the existing literature and contributes to it by taking a multifaceted approach to female integration in Western Europe, which presents not only an institutional context different from the USA but also some heterogeneity with respect to integration policies and socioeconomic factors.

CPTED’s premise to the improvement of quality of life (QOL) is crime prevention and safety, and yet there is little concern for the impact of CPTED implementation to QOL when the crime increases after the interventions.

This study systematically analyzed articles both quantitatively and qualitatively.

This study found that the CPTED–QOL relationship discussion was highly inadequate in research. Improvement of QOL has been elevated to an unquestionable and certain truth of CPTED and yet the evidence on this is highly inconclusive.

This study is a contribution to the CPTED–QOL discussion that has been lacking.

In this study, students’ perceptions of the effective practices of their research mentors were examined. The research mentors implemented the practices informed by the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER) mentorship competencies to mentor underrepresented students in engineering education research in a virtual environment.

This research experience for undergraduates (REU) program, situated in the United States of America, consisted of undergraduate students (i.e. mentees), graduate students and faculty mentors who all had at least one underrepresented identity in engineering (i.e. Black, Latiné/x, and/or women). Using qualitative methods, we used data from reflection surveys and follow-up interviews with REU mentees to understand the outcomes of the mentorship strategies employed by the mentors in the program. The data were analyzed thematically using CIMER model constructs and social capital theory as guiding frameworks.

The results indicated the identified strategies students perceived as the most impactful for mentorship throughout the program. Students in the REU gained knowledge on how to activate social capital in mentorship relationships and how to better mentor others.

The findings provide insight on how to operationalize the CIMER mentorship competencies to skillfully mentor underrepresented students in engineering. Given the size of the REU and the nature of qualitative research, the sample size was limited.

The results help inform mentorship practices for underrepresented individuals in engineering education and the workforce. Further, they add to the practical knowledge of implementing CIMER best practices virtually, at a time when the world has transitioned to more hybrid and virtual working and learning environments.

This study identifies impactful strategies for operationalizing mentorship strategies informed by theory- and evidence-based CIMER mentorship competencies. In addition, this study extends knowledge about how to implement mentoring best practices and engage mentorship in a virtual environment.

This article explores in a qualitative manner the motivations of women entrepreneurs who start and run ethnic food businesses in London.

Our approach is qualitative and deploys phenomenographical analysis of interview narratives around categories of motivation.

We find that women ethnic food entrepreneurs are driven by a combination of desire for self-actualisation, identity-maintenance and community considerations. We demonstrate that women ethnic food entrepreneurs often go against the logic of the market, and they do so not because they lack other options, but for reasons that have to do with their (self-)identification as women and professionals, their prerogatives as mothers and daughters, their ethnic heritage, their emplacement in urban and global communities and their need to contribute. Our findings enrich understanding of female-led ethnic food entrepreneurship not as a demanding, overall unproductive undertaking for women with no other options, but as a realm of inspiration, community engagement and female-led innovation.

Our main contributions are the qualitative interrogation of perceptions and experiences of identity and difference in urban entrepreneurship from the point of view of our interviewees; providing concrete empirical evidence for it through our sample and proposing an approach to thinking women-led ethnic food entrepreneurship as a vehicle for translating urban superdiversity into social interactions across barriers of difference. We speak to the field of women entrepreneurship studies but specifically to the understudied realm of women-led food entrepreneurship, and to the cross-disciplinary field of (im)migrant entrepreneurship.

Supporting community college transfer students represents a critical strategy for broadening participation in STEM. In addition to being a racially diverse group, students who pursue STEM degrees by way of community college report frequent interests in graduate study and academic careers. Thus, supporting and expanding transfer students’ PhD interests can help to diversify the STEM professoriate. This study aims to identify the experiences that predict PhD interests among students who transferred into the computer science major from a community college.

Relying on longitudinal survey data from over 150 community college transfer students throughout their first year at their receiving four-year university, we used regression analysis to identify the post-transfer college experiences that predict early interest in PhDs.

We found that receiving information about PhDs from a professor strongly predicted PhD interest among transfer students. Relationships with other variables indicate that the provision of information about graduate school was more likely to occur for students who participated in undergraduate research experiences than for those participating in internships. Descriptive data document inequities in who has access to these types of experiences.

This paper provides new insight into how STEM departments can develop targeted efforts to ensure that information about PhD training is equitably available to all transfer students. Working to ensure that faculty equitably communicate with students about PhD opportunities may go a long way in countering potential deterrents among transfer students who may be interested in such pathways.

Arab Americans experience higher rates of mental illness and lower rates of treatment compared to the general population. While some factors leading to this disparity have been proposed, data in the literature remains lacking. This study aims to explore the mental health perspectives of Arab Americans living in Southeastern Michigan regarding barriers to mental health treatment, treatment resource preferences and telemental health preferences.

Responses were collected through an anonymous bilingual Qualtrics survey from both Arab and non-Arab participants (n = 294, ages 18+) in Southeastern Michigan. Participants’ perceptions regarding mental health barriers, resource preferences and telemental health were assessed. Comparisons were performed between Arabs and non-Arabs, and among Arabs.

Compared to non-Arabs, Arabs were less likely to seek mental health treatment from a therapist or a primary care provider and were more likely to not seek treatment. Arabs were more likely than non-Arabs to list fear of being called crazy by others and cultural barriers. With regards to preferences on telemental health utilization, no significant differences between Arab and non-Arab participants were found.

The results provide insights into Arab-American mental health perspectives, especially pertaining to mental health barriers, resources and telemental health preferences, adding a novel perspective on the mental health preferences of Arab-American subgroups, especially regarding gender and age differences. This study highlights the Arab-American population as a nuanced and diverse group, emphasizing the importance of future studies to show a more complete picture of Arab-American mental health.

The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of college-age mentors in a school-based mentoring (SBM) program with the aim of understanding mentor perceptions of “power.”

Seventeen mentors, comprising both undergraduate (9) and graduate (8) students, participated in this exploratory qualitative study. One-on-one semi-structured interviews and Focus Groups served as the primary methods of data collection. The modified Grounded Theory approach guided the data analysis process. Mentor narratives were scrutinized within the Indian context while also considering a global perspective.

Three major role execution styles emerged from examining mentor behavior: leadership, coaching and companionship. These charted the trajectory of equitability, revealing two major aspects of mentor perception: (1) within a tightly monitored and firmly structured program in a collectivist context, mentors believed they had the power to promote equitability in their dyads and (2) raising awareness about inequity is not sufficient to activate equitability, but additionally, an open mindset is essential for making conscious efforts to disrupt hierarchy.

The findings hold significant implications for higher education institutions and program creators in advocating school–college partnerships using SBM to promote equitable program structures and to develop a socially responsible next generation of leaders.

The study modestly fills critical gaps in the literature related to the understanding of power dynamics in mentoring relationships and understanding mentorship from mentors’ views. Future research could explore how college-age mentors perceive their own social capital.

Racially and ethnically minoritized (REM) women continue to be underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs and careers. Peer mentoring is one strategy that can support their participation. This study explores the experiences of Black women peer mentors in an online peer mentoring program at two historically Black institutions.

A qualitative case study approach was utilized to explore the impact of an online peer mentoring program on peer mentors' STEM self-efficacy, sense of community, STEM identity and intent to persist in STEM.

Analysis identified five themes relating to peer mentors' experiences in the program: (1) an “I can do this” approach: confidence and self-efficacy; (2) utility of like others; (3) “beacons of light”: intersecting and malleable identities; (4) skills development and (5) motivation and reciprocity. Further, challenges of the online relationship were shared.

The study contributes to the body of knowledge by demonstrating the utility of an online peer mentoring model among women mentors enrolled in STEM programs at two historically Black institutions. The findings support those who are historically marginalized in participating in and remaining in STEM.