Barriers to STEM Efficacy and Outcome Expectations among Native American College Students

Native Americans are severely underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). In this study, we examined the construal, salience, and relevance of the barriers that Native American college students believe could impact their STEM career preparation. An exploratory factor analysis of the Perceptions of Educational Barriers Scale conducted with 152 Native American college students yielded 8 perceived barrier factors: school expensive, lack of access, lack of preparation, not smart enough, not good at math/science, family responsibilities, discrimination, and lack of support. School expense was by far their greatest barrier, and for men, this barrier negatively predicted their STEM career self-efficacy, with self-efficacy positively predicting their STEM career outcome expectations. For women, lack of support positively predicted their STEM career self-efficacy, with self-efficacy positively predicting and discrimination negatively predicting their STEM career outcome expectations. Results are interpreted in light of social cognitive career theory.

Development and Validation of a Short Form of the College-Going Self-Efficacy Scale

Social Cognitive Career Theory (Lent et al., 1994) is a useful framework for understanding educational attainment and reducing educational inequities. A key construct for middle and high school students is college-going self-efficacy. The College-Going Self-Efficacy Scale (CGSES; Gibbons & Borders, 2010a) has been used to measure secondary students' confidence in their abilities to attend and persist in post-secondary education, but with 30-items, it may be too lengthy for use with other measures in SCCT-grounded research in school settings. Using two independent samples of rural Appalachian high school students, we develop and validate the College-Going Self-Efficacy Scale-Short Form (CGSES-SF). This 14-item measure retains the full breadth of content from the original CGSES, demonstrates measurement equivalence across gender and prospective college generation status, and demonstrates good reliability and validity in these samples. Suggestions for future use of the CGSES-SF are provided.