From Aspirations to Actualization: How Engagement With Supports, Networks and Services Influence Community College STEM Students’ Self-Efficacy and Timely Transfer

Objectives: This study seeks to unravel how community college STEM transfer-intending students navigate upward transfer pathways and how institutions can provide effective support and networks to enhance their experiences. Specifically, it aims to clarify how students’ self-efficacy intertwined with different forms of support within and outside of college impacts the likelihood and timing of transfer. Methods: Using structural equation modeling to analyze survey data and 6-year student transfer outcomes from three 2-year institutions colleges, this study investigated the relationship among students’ engagement with transfer support, networks, and services, transfer self-efficacy, and transfer outcomes. We also examined how that relationship varies between racial/ethnic groups. Results: Our findings suggest that greater transfer self-efficacy is associated with shorter transfer times to a 4-year institution for all students. The findings also revealed prominent racial inequities, showing that while transfer self-efficacy and transfer support services benefit everyone, students of color do not receive the same self-efficacy boost from institutional and personal networks as white students do. Contribution: This study generates new knowledge toward improving community colleges’ transfer function by locating students’ use of supports, networks, and services to boost their self-efficacy to ensure their progress toward vertical transfer and an eventual baccalaureate degree. Our findings also hold implications for how to foster an equitable and just STEM transfer pathway, especially how to resolve potential racial disparities within this unique and pivotal transfer process.