CAREER: Identifying Aspects of Research that Exacerbate Undergraduate and Graduate Student Depression and Developing Interventions to Improve Student Mental Health

职业：确定加剧本科生和研究生抑郁症的研究方面，并制定改善学生心理健康的干预措施

• 批准号: 2143671
• 负责人: Katelyn Cooper
• 金额: $ 98.59万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-07-01 至 2027-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2143671&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Identifying; Aspects; Research; Exacerbate

This project aims to serve the national interest by advancing the understanding of the relationship between scientific research experiences and depression among undergraduates and graduates, and by developing interventions to improve student mental health. Depression is one of the top mental health concerns among undergraduate and graduate students and disproportionately impacts those who are already underserved in science, including women, first-generation college students, individuals from low socioeconomic backgrounds, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and people with disabilities. Recent research has established that aspects of scientific research experiences can exacerbate depressive symptoms. However, it is unknown what aspects of research that exacerbate depression are most commonly experienced by students, which aspects of research are most detrimental to student mental health, and whether specific aspects of research disproportionately affect depression for particular student groups. This CAREER project will address these gaps in the literature using interview and survey studies. Additionally, the project will develop brief, self-guided online interventions designed to help undergraduate and graduate researchers productively cope with challenges in research that can worsen mental health. This project will integrate research and teaching by developing biology education course-based undergraduate research experiences that will be offered to students enrolled in Arizona State University’s online life sciences Bachelor of Science degree programs. Online students will engage in authentic research activities focused on the relationship between science education and depression.The goal of this project is to use an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design to examine the relationship between scientific research and depressive symptoms among undergraduate and graduate students in the life sciences. Additionally, the project aims to develop and evaluate single-session interventions to help undergraduate and graduate students cope with aspects of scientific research that can exacerbate depressive symptoms. Specifically, exploratory interview studies will further probe why biology undergraduate and graduate students perceive that aspects of research exacerbate, and sometimes alleviate, depressive symptoms, as well as identify moderators of the relationship between research and student depression. These studies will also explore potential targets for creating more inclusive research environments. The findings from the interviews will inform national survey studies to assess the relationship between research and depression among biology undergraduate and graduate students at scale and what approaches undergraduate and graduate researchers perceive would be most effective in transforming research spaces to be more inclusive. The results of these studies will be used to develop single-session interventions to help students cope with common challenges in research; the interventions will be easy to administer, independent of instructors or mentors, freely available, and deliverable to students at scale. To integrate research and teaching with the intent to build a foundational body of research on the relationship between science education and depression, and to normalize mental health concerns among students, biology education course-based undergraduate research experiences will be developed and taught to students in Arizona State University’s online life sciences Bachelor of Science degree programs. This approach will deliver authentic research experiences to a population of students who have very few research opportunities and who often report higher rates of depression than their peers completing degrees in person. Funding for this award is being provided by the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education program and the NSF Research Traineeship program in recognition of the alignment of the project with the aims of these two programs that focus on the undergraduate and graduate STEM education enterprises, respectively.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目的目的是通过促进对科学研究经历与本科生和毕业生之间的关系之间的关系的理解，并通过开发干预措施来改善学生心理健康的方式来满足国家利益。抑郁症是本科生和研究生中最大的心理健康问题之一，并且不成比例地影响那些已经在科学领域服务不足的人，包括女性，第一代大学生，来自低社会经济背景的个人，LGBTQ+社区成员，以及残疾人。最近的研究表明，科学研究经验的各个方面会加剧抑郁症状。但是，尚不清楚学生最常经历的研究的哪些方面，研究的哪些方面最不利于学生的心理健康，以及研究的特定方面是否对特定学生群体的抑郁症影响不成比例。这个职业项目将使用访谈和调查研究解决文献中的这些差距。此外，该项目将制定简短的，自导的在线干预措施，旨在帮助本科和研究生研究人员有效地应对可能导致心理健康的研究挑战。该项目将通过开发基于生物学教育课程的本科研究经验来整合研究和教学，并将提供给亚利桑那州立大学在线生活科学学士学位课程的学生。在线学生将从事真正的研究活动，专注于科学教育与抑郁症之间的关系。该项目的目的是使用探索性的顺序混合方法设计，以研究生活科学中本科生和研究生中科学研究与抑郁症状之间的关系。此外，该项目旨在开发和评估单会干预措施，这些研究还将探索创建更多包容性研究的潜在目标。环境。访谈的发现将为国家调查研究提供信息，以评估生物学本科生和研究生之间的研究与抑郁之间的关系，以及哪些方法的本科生和研究生研究人员认为，最有效地将研究空间转变为更具包容性。这些研究的结果将用于制定单课干预措施，以帮助学生应对研究中的共同挑战。干预措施将易于管理，独立于讲师或导师，可免费提供，并可以向学生提供大规模的学生。为了整合研究和教学，并意图建立有关科学教育与抑郁症之间关系的基础研究，并在学生之间正常化的心理健康问题，基于生物学教育课程的本科研究经验将得到发展和教授，并向亚利桑那州立大学的在线生活科学学士学位学士学位课程中的学生教授。这种方法将为一群研究机会很少并且经常报告抑郁率更高的学生提供真实的研究经验，而与亲自完成学位的同龄人相比。 Funding for this award is being provided by the Improve Undergraduate STEM Education program and the NSF Research Traineeship program in recognition of the alignment of the project with the aims of these two programs that focus on the undergraduate and graduate STEM education enterprises, respectively.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed honestly of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.