Background
Despite the increasing number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) jobs available, concern continues to grow over the low number of students who choose to study and enter STEM fields. Research suggests that children begin to identify their interests and career aspirations related to STEM as early as elementary school when they begin to shape their personal identities and start making decisions about who they are and could be in the future, their role identities (e.g., scientist, engineer). Existing surveys that assess identity target high school or post-secondary students, with less work on elementary and middle school students. This paper describes the development and validation of survey instruments to assess engineering identity in elementary students and its adaptation to a more general STEM context.

Results
The role identity survey in engineering (RIS-E) was developed across four phases of pilot testing where it was administered to 634 students in third–sixth grade enrolled in classrooms in the West, Midwest, and Northeastern United States. Exploratory modeling approaches and scale reliability were used to narrow down items, while confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) and item response theory (IRT) approaches were used to examine item performance. The final survey contained four scales that assess aspects of one’s identity (competence, interest, self-recognition, and recognition by others), all of which demonstrated strong psychometric properties. The RIS-E was then adapted to assess STEM identity (RIS-STEM), and it was administered to 678 fourth–fifth grade students enrolled in classrooms in the Southwestern United States. CFA and IRT analyses provided support for use of the RIS-STEM in a more general STEM context.

Conclusions
The RIS-E and RIS-STEM appear to produce reliable scores that measure aspects of identity (engineering and STEM) in elementary students. Suggestions are made for future studies to examine how the RIS-E and RIS-STEM function across diverse student populations and the impact on one’s identity as a result of curricula or programs designed to encourage and support identity development in youth, especially in engineering and STEM.



中文翻译：

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针对小学学生的工程学（RIS-E）和STEM（RIS-STEM）中的角色身份调查的开发和验证

背景信息
尽管可用的科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）职位数量不断增加，但对于选择学习和进入STEM领域的学生人数很少的关注仍在继续增长。研究表明，孩子开始识别他们，当他们开始塑造自己的个人身份，并开始做关于他们谁决定早在小学STEM相关的兴趣和职业理想 是 和 可能 将来，他们的角色身份（例如科学家，工程师）。现有评估身份的调查针对的是高中生或大专生，而针对中小学生的工作较少。本文介绍了用于评估小学生工程身份的调查工具的开发和验证，以及其对更一般的STEM环境的适应性。

结果
工程中的角色识别调查（RIS-E）是在试点测试的四个阶段开发的，该调查被管理给634个在美国西部，中西部和东北部的教室就读的三年级至六年级的学生。探索性建模方法和规模可靠性用于缩小项目范围，而验证性因素分析（CFA）和项目响应理论（IRT）方法用于检查项目绩效。最终调查包含四个评估个人身份各方面（能力，兴趣，自我认知和他人认可）的量表，所有这些量表均显示出强大的心理计量学特性。然后，将RIS-E修改为评估STEM身份（RIS-STEM），并将其应用于美国西南部的678名四年级至五年级学生。

结论
RIS-E和RIS-STEM似乎产生了可靠的分数，可以衡量小学生的身份（工程学和STEM）方面。为将来的研究提出了建议，以检验RIS-E和RIS-STEM如何在各种学生群体中发挥作用，以及通过旨在鼓励和支持青年，尤其是工程学和STEM中的身份发展的课程或计划的结果，对RIS-E和RIS-STEM的影响。