Barriers to Capitalization in Engineering and Computer Science Undergraduates: Investigating the Moderating Effects of Individual Differences

he problem of attrition is a serious and consistent one in the fields of computer science and engineering. One solution to mending this issue is heightening a sense of professional identity in students by increasing their satisfaction and commitment to their major. While initial research has demonstrated that partaking in voluntary development activities (i.e., capitalization) is one avenue for increasing students'rofessional identity. little is known about the barriers that might deter students from capitalizing or how these barriers might interact with students'ndividual differences to influence their quantity of capitalization participation. This study examined the influence of several types of barriers to capitalization encountered by undergraduate students (i.e., the gender-specific barriers experienced by women and the gender-neutral barriers of lack of time and discouragement from one's environment experienced by all students), as well as their interactions with three individual differences: self-efficacy for development. coping efficacy, and learning goal orientation. Data, collected via online surveys from 196 computer science and engineering majors, revealed that lack of time was the only type of barrier which significantly impacted student capitalization. Self-efficacy for development and coping efficacy emerged as key individual difference moderators of the negative influence of perceived time barriers on students' capitalization. Efficacious students engaged in a higher quantity of capitalization activities compared to those with lower self-efficacy when perceiving fewer time barriers. However, contrary to expectation. students engaged in a similar amount of capitalization regardless of their standing on these individual differences when perceiving greater time barriers. Finally, capitalization quantity was significantly related to both students' satisfaction with and commitment to their major. This provides additional support for capitalization serving to anchor students to their major and thus as an avenue to help alleviate attrition within computer science and engineering majors. Future research directions and additional practical implications are discussed.