• DOI:10.33915/etd.4054
• Corpus ID: 207980592

Promoting Sense of Belonging and Interest in Geosciences among Undergraduate Women through Mentoring

@inproceedings{Du2019PromotingSO,
  title={Promoting Sense of Belonging and Interest in Geosciences among Undergraduate Women through Mentoring},
  author={Wenyi Du},
  year={2019}
}

• W. Du
• Published 2019
• Education

Promoting Sense of Belonging and Interest in Geosciences among Undergraduate Women through Mentoring Wenyi Du The purpose of this study is to investigate whether students’ university sense of belonging mediates the relationship between mentor network diversity and students’ interest development among undergraduate women in STEM majors. The sample for this study was consisted of 277 undergraduate women majoring in a STEM discipline with initial interests in geosciences across nine universities within the United States. A regression-based mediation analysis was performed using the Hayes’ (2013) macro to test the indirect effect of mentor support on interest through university sense of belonging. Consistent with our hypothesis, the analysis revealed a statistically significant and positive indirect effect of the mentor network diversity on interest in geoscience through university sense of belonging, a×b = .04, 95% CI = [.01,.08]. More specifically, the mentors network diversity positively predicts university sense of belonging (B = 0.19, p <.05), and in turn university sense of belonging positively predicts students’ interest in geoscience (B = 0.20, p < .05). These results imply that undergraduate women’s interests can be aroused and maintained through their increased sense of belonging, which can be satisfied by diversifying their mentor network resources.