ABSTRACT

Ensuring the adequacy of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce is a priority in the United States. STEM persistence in college is essential to building career pathways, but research is needed to explain voluntary attrition. We applied embeddedness theory to develop and evaluate a 14-item measure of STEM major embeddedness and a 12-item measure of university embeddedness. Using multiple undergraduate samples, we conducted item-sort tasks, exploratory factor analyses, and confirmatory factor analyses to ensure psychometric quality and to refine multidimensional scales, each with dimensions of fit, links, and sacrifice. Findings supported content, convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity. Mapping the nomological network, embeddedness was related to social and human capital, major satisfaction, major commitment, and persistence. Future research and practical applications are discussed.

摘要

在美国，确保科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）劳动力的充足性是当务之急。大学的STEM坚持对建立职业发展道路至关重要，但是需要进行研究来解释自愿减员的情况。我们应用嵌入理论来开发和评估STEM专业嵌入的14个项目和大学嵌入的12个项目。我们使用多个本科生样本，进行了项目分类任务，探索性因素分析和确认性因素分析，以确保心理测量质量并完善多维量表，每个量表均具有适合度，链接度和牺牲度。结果支持的内容，收敛性，判别性和与标准相关的有效性。映射法学网络，嵌入性与社会和人力资本，主要满意度，重大承诺和毅力。讨论了未来的研究和实际应用。