GENDER DIFFERENCES IN AFRICULTURAL COPING, PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS, AND INTENTIONS TO PERSIST IN STEM AMONG BLACK STUDENTS AT HBCUS

Growing literature on the experiences of Black students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) at Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCUs) has illustrated HBCUs' success in graduating Black students in STEM. However, little research has examined the intersection of race and gender and psychological factors that may influence students’ commitment to obtaining a STEM degree and/or career. The purpose of the present study was to identify whether gender moderates the impact of Africultural coping strategies (cognitive emotional debriefing and spiritual-centered) and psychological distress on commitment to persist in STEM among Black STEM students attending HBCUs. Using the intersectionality theoretical framework, we administered an online survey via Qualtrics to collect data on the coping strategies, distress, and STEM commitment from 463 Black women and 139 Black men STEM students across several HBCUs. The results indicated that gender was not a significant moderator: there were no significant interactions when predicting short-term commitment (while controlling for college-level courses), long-term commitment, nor career commitment to STEM. However, there was a significant main effect of spiritual-centered coping in predicting greater long-term intentions to commit to STEM. There was also a significant main effect of gender on career commitment, with Black men having greater intentions to commit to a STEM career relative to Black women. This research will contribute to the limited research on gender differences in the retention of Black STEM students at HBCUs, using measures of Africultural coping strategies and psychological distress.