Research Supplement to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Fields
Parent Project:
1. ABSTRACT OF FUNDED PARENT RESEARCH
Interventions to enhance the pool of underrepresented minority (URM) groups in the research workforce,
including Blacks or African Americans, Hispanics or Latinos, American Indians or Alaska Natives, Native
Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, and students from disadvantaged backgrounds are needed to sustain the
training and transition into research careers for these groups. In the proposed project, we will address and
mitigate three career threats for biomedical and behavioral researchers-in-training (the “Triple Threat”)—
perceived discrimination, fixed ability mindset, and impostor feelings —that may harm trainees’ career
motivation and retention, via interventions aimed at trainees and their mentors. A key aspect of our project is
that we not only address the Triple Threat in trainees, but also address the Triple Threat in their mentors, who
critically shape the environment in which the trainees learn and work. Both interventions will involve <3.5 hour
synchronous and interactive virtual workshops that introduce the Triple Threat, provide example strategies that
trainees/mentors can use to mitigate the Triple Threat, and have trainees/mentors adapt strategies and/or
generate new strategies that they can consistently use over time. We will recruit 140 mentors (and 420 of their
trainees) with the help of Site Partners from six leading institutions around the country. Trainees and mentors
will be cluster randomized to either treatment (Triple Threat Intervention) or active control group, and will take
measures of key variables pre- and post-intervention, and annually until funding ends. These key measures
include, for trainees, their experiences of the Triple Threat, career threat coping skills, career motivation
(research self-efficacy, scientist identity, expectancy beliefs, and values), and career outcomes (intentions and
steps taken to pursue research paths, behaviors/products); and, for mentors, their awareness of the Triple
Threat and use of specific strategies (both inclusive and supportive) to mitigate it. Using multilevel modeling,
growth models, multigroup SEM, and repeated measures MANOVA, we will evaluate the effects of the two
interventions on short-, medium-, and long-term outcomes, and whether the interventions have stronger effects
for URM trainees. We expect to find, in line with theoretical predictions, that trainees who receive the
intervention will report decreased experience of the Triple Threat, and increased coping skills, career motivation,
and career outcomes, compared to trainees in the control condition; that mentors who receive the intervention
will report stronger engagement in behaviors/practices to mitigate the Triple Threat than mentors in the control
condition; and that trainees who receive the intervention and who also have mentors who received the
intervention will experience the most positive outcomes. We also expect that the intervention may be most
beneficial to URM students, as well as students from multiple URM categories. These interventions, designed to
be scalable and adaptable, will be taught to be delivered by training program directors at our Site Partner
institutions, enhancing intervention sustainability and dissemination over time.
