Publications by authors named "Nicholas A Bowman"

A large-scale experiment focused on social belonging shows impacts on first-year full-time completion.

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Substantial gender equity gaps in postsecondary degree completion persist within many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, and these disparities have not narrowed during the 21st century. Various explanations of this phenomenon have been offered; one possibility that has received limited attention is that the sparse representation of women itself has adverse effects on the academic achievement-and ultimately the persistence and graduation-of women who take STEM courses. This study explored the relationship between two forms of gender representation (i.

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Students who speak English as a second language (ESL) are underserved and underrepresented in postsecondary science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. To date, most existing research with ESL students in higher education is qualitative. Drawing from this important body of work, we investigate the impact of a social-belonging intervention on anticipated changes in belonging, STEM GPA, and proportion of STEM credits obtained in students' first semester and first year of college.

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The contact hypothesis asserts that intergroup attitudes can be improved when groups have opportunities to interact with each other. Recent research extending the contact hypothesis suggests that contact with a primary outgroup can decrease bias toward outgroups not directly involved in the interaction, which is known as the secondary transfer effect (STE). The present study contributes to growing research on STEs by investigating effects among Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White undergraduate students (N = 3,098) attending 28 selective colleges and universities.

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Although U.S. culture strongly sanctions the ideal of independence, the specific ways in which independence is realized may be variable depending, among other factors, on social class.

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