Yu Fanyi, Nyanamba Juliet M, Anderson Brittany, DeerInWater Kathy, Estrada Mica, Hosoda K Kanoho, Maldonado Natalia, Smith Tiffany, Flores Lilibeth, Hernandez Paul R
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA.
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37240, USA.
J Educ Psychol. 2025 Jul 10. doi: 10.1037/edu0000967.
Indigenous/Native Americans remain highly underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Their underrepresentation may be due, in part, to the incongruity between personally valued goals (e.g., the of "giving back" to one's community and/or the of "independence") and opportunities to satisfy those goals in STEM careers (i.e., affordances). Goal congruity theory posits that individuals' attitudes towards a social role (e.g., being a scientist) are influenced by the communal/agentic goal affordances associated with that role and the congruity between those affordances and personally valued goals. This longitudinal research study followed a large sample of Indigenous people pursuing STEM degrees/careers to investigate the direct and indirect effects of perceived communal/agentic goal affordances in STEM careers and incongruity (Time-2) on intentions to persist and life satisfaction (Time-3) through a sense of belonging in their STEM field (Time-2), controlling for baseline (Time-1). Both communal and agentic goal affordances positively influenced persistence intentions through belonging. By contrast, agentic goal incongruity negatively influenced persistence intentions through belonging, but communal goal incongruity did not. We found no significant results for global life satisfaction. Our findings underscore the significance of supporting roles and environments that facilitate the fulfillment of communal and agentic goals and point to the complexity of the goal-pursuit process among Indigenous populations.
美洲原住民在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域的代表性仍然极低。他们代表性不足的部分原因可能是个人重视的目标（例如“回馈”社区和/或“独立”的目标）与在STEM职业中实现这些目标的机会（即可供性）之间存在不一致。目标一致性理论认为，个体对社会角色（如成为科学家）的态度受与该角色相关的集体/能动目标可供性以及这些可供性与个人重视目标之间一致性的影响。这项纵向研究跟踪了大量攻读STEM学位/从事STEM职业的原住民样本，以调查STEM职业中感知到的集体/能动目标可供性和不一致性（时间2）通过在其STEM领域的归属感（时间2）对坚持意愿和生活满意度（时间3）的直接和间接影响，并控制基线（时间1）。集体和能动目标可供性都通过归属感对坚持意愿产生积极影响。相比之下，能动目标不一致性通过归属感对坚持意愿产生负面影响，但集体目标不一致性没有。我们没有发现对总体生活满意度有显著影响的结果。我们的研究结果强调了支持有助于实现集体和能动目标的角色和环境的重要性，并指出了原住民群体目标追求过程的复杂性。
