The Impostor Phenomenon in the Global Computing Graduate Student Population
Several studies have confirmed that undergraduates in computing programs frequently experience the Impostor Phenomenon (IP). However, this work has largely focused on North America and Europe, and no work has evaluated graduate students in computing. This study evaluates the rate of IP experiences in graduate programs globally to determine whether rates of IP experiences are consistent and whether there are institutions or locations with lower rates of IP that might inform the development of support systems to reduce its prevalence. We perform a multi-institutional, multi-national survey-based study of 11 institutions, with at least one on every populated continent. The survey asks graduate students to complete the Clance IP scale (CIPS), which is the standard evaluation instrument for IP, as well as to answer a number of demographic questions that establish their experience level, gender, and ethnicity.We evaluate the overall level of IP experiences at each institution as well as across regions, and we explore the interaction between CIPS scores, region, and demographic factors.
Authors
- Leo Porter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1435-8401)
- Selina Marianna Shah (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1907-4961)
- Jack Parkinson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6175-7638)
- Michael Liut (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2965-5302)
- Brian Harrington (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0734-9630)
- Emmanuel Awuni Kolog (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6924-3532)
- Paul Vrbik (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4131-6004)
- Carlos Aníbal Suárez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6012-932X)
- Oscar Karnalim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4930-6249)
- Andrew Petersen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1337-7985)
- Mohammed F. Farghally (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9596-5352)
- Lisa Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7302-6530)
- Angela Zavaleta Bernuy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1228-5774)
- Shirley de Wit (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5549-914X)
- Rodrigo Duran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1840-2895)
- Caroline Pechenik
Institutions
- Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul (BR)
- University of Ghana (GH)
- Maranatha Christian University (ID)
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral (EC)
- Scarborough Health Network (CA)
- University of California San Diego (US)
- University of Glasgow (GB)
- Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (IN)
- Virginia Tech (US)
- McMaster University (CA)
- Delft University of Technology (NL)
Publication Details
- Published
- 2025-09-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3736181.3754327
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Perfectionism, Procrastination, Anxiety Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.31