Table 5.

Psycosocial factors (23 articles; 34.8% total).

First author, year of publication5	Type	Summary
Abdulrazzak et al. (2021)	Single institution study of 49 high school students (64% URiM) participating in a mini-medical school program.	The most significant barriers identified were cost, family education, and lack of guidance and role models.
	Qualitative study.	Mid-and post-program studies indicated a significant reduction in the self-reported barriers related to guidance and mentorship. One-on-one mentoring provided to the high school students a means of support and may have empowered them to recognize their own potential.
	Goal: To identify barriers to pursuing a medical career among URiM high school students.
Acheampong et al. (2019)	Single institution study of 16 Black male medical school graduates.	Race was a major stressor as evidenced by academic expectations that differed, social isolation and institutional atmosphere, less access to academic resources as well as academic inequity and racial tension.
	Qualitative study.	The participants discussed the negative impact of racialized stress on their academic performance as well as physical and emotional health.
	Goal: To determine the factors that contributed to and methods for coping with stress by black males in medical school.	Coping mechanisms included social and spiritual support.
Afghani et al. (2013)	Single institution study of 253 high school students (22% URiM) in a summer enrichment program. 36 college students (59% URiM) and 12 medical students (92% URiM) participated as near-peers and coaches.	The coaches reported that their self-confidence and leadership increased, they became more aware of the importance of cultural diversity and their motivation for a career in medicine increased.
	Qualitative study.
	Goals: To assess the effect of involvement in a pipeline program for high-school students on attitudes of peer coaches.
Artino (2012)	Scholarly perspective on self-efficacy.	A discussion of the nature and structure of self-efficacy and several instructional implications for medical education. These include using peer modeling to build self-efficacy and using social persuasion to help students believe that they can cope with difficult situations.
Bernard et al. (2018)	Single institution study of 157 Black undergraduates at a predominately White university.	Racial discrimination was positively related to higher subsequent levels of IP, controlling for initial levels of IP.
	Qualitative survey.
	Goal: To longitudinally examine the relationship between racial discrimination and Impostor Phenomenon (IP).
Bright et al. (2018)	Scholarly perspective on social support mechanisms.	A discussion of effective programs and strategies used to increase admissions of underrepresented students in general, and black males in particular, into medical school.
Canning et al. (2019b)	Single-institution study of 61 STEM faculty and 15,466 students (10.9% URiM) enrolled in all the courses taught by the STEM faculty respondents.	Course evaluations revealed that URiM students were demotivated and had more negative experiences in classes taught by fixed (versus growth) mindset faculty.
	Qualitative survey.	The racial achievement gap in courses taught by the fixed mindset faculty was twice as large as the achievement gaps in courses taught by more growth mindset faculty.
	Goal: To test if STEM faculties’ fixed beliefs about intelligence and ability would lead to stereotype threat and URiM students would experience lower motivation and underperform relative to their non-stereotyped peers.
Cokley et al. (2013)	Single-institution study of 50 Black and 76 Hispanic/Latina/Latino/Latinx undergraduate participants.	Black students reported significantly more race-related stress than Hispanic/Latina/Latino/Latinx students. There were no differences in impostor feelings between the two groups.
	Qualitative survey.	Impostor feelings were significantly positively correlated with minority status stress and negatively correlated with psychological wellbeing.
	Goal: To examine to what extent minority status stress and impostor syndrome was predictive of the students’ mental health.	Impostor feelings predicted mental health problems more strongly than stress related to one’s racial/ethnic status.
Cokley et al. (2017)	Single-institution study of 106 Black and 108 Hispanic/Latina/Latino/Latinx undergraduate participants.	Black students reported higher perceived discrimination than Hispanic/Latina/Latino/Latinx students. There were no differences in impostor feelings by racial/ethnic group. Among the two groups impostor feelings were not predictive of depression but were for anxiety.
	Qualitative survey.
	Goal: To determine the extent of impostor syndrome and perceived discrimination among the racial/ethnic minoritized groups. To determine if impostor feelings moderated the relationship between perceived discrimination and depression and anxiety.
Cole and Griffin (2013)	Scholarly literature review on student-faculty interactions.	Investigates the experiences of URiM individuals and notes how the frequency, quality, and outcomes of student-faculty interactions vary based on the social identities of those interacting. Discusses the importance of the students-faculty interaction in particular for URiM students.
Echegoyen et al. (2019)	Single institution study of self-efficacy in 1,652 freshman participants (84–96% URiM) in a first-year research intensive program.	Participants in the research program showed a statistically significant increase in self-efficacy and a decrease in IP.
	Goals: To measure self-efficacy prior to and at the conclusion of the program.	Participants demonstrated increased long-term retention relative to non-participants (84.8% compared to 58.5% at year 3).
	To measure retention in STEM.
	Control group for retention was non-program participants.
Freeman et al., 2016	Cross-Sectional, multi-institutional study of 82 pre-medical undergraduate students (100% URiM).	Respondents noted lack of access to advising mentors and health related opportunities as significant barriers. These challenges led to the students questioning the viability of medicine as a career.
	Qualitative survey.
	Goal: To identify importance of peer-mentoring for undergraduate students applying to professional school.
Kosobuski et al. (2017)	Single institution study of 22 undergraduate students (72.7% URiM) in a pre-matriculation program.	Program participants showed retention of microbiology content and increased confidence about the overall medical school experience after participating in the program.
	Goal: To measure the effectiveness of a pre-matriculation program in improving self-efficacy by looking at performance in a basic science class.
Lige et al. (2017)	Multi-institution study of 112 Black undergraduate students in both public and private predominantly White institutions (PWIs).	Ethnic-racial identity was positively and significantly associated with self-esteem and inversely associated with IP. Self-esteem was negatively and significantly associated with IP.
	Qualitative survey.
	Goal: To examine the relationships between racial identity, self-esteem, and impostor phenomenon (IP) among Black undergraduate students.
McClain et al. (2016)	Single institution study of 218 Black college students.	Minority stress and IP were significantly negatively related to mental health whereas racial/ethnic identity were positively related to mental health.
	Qualitative survey.
	Goal: To examine racial/ethnic identity, minority status stress, and impostor phenomenon (IP) as predictors of mental health.
Morgan et al. (2016)	Scholarly perspective	The authors describe the premedical experience for URiM students and note the positive effects of developing mentor relationships with faculty and students from professional schools.
Morgan Consoli et al. (2015)	Single institution study of 121 undergraduates (100% URiM).	Hope—intrinsic determination to meet one’s goals and planning of multiple methods in which to reach these goals-was a significant predictor for both resilience and thriving.
	Qualitative study.
	Goal: To investigate the role of several factors (spirituality, hope, social support, and cultural values) in predicting resilience and thriving.	Spirituality and cultural pride were significant predictors only for thriving.
Mushonga and Henneberger (2020)	Multi-institution study of 156 traditional college students and 79 non-traditional college students (ages 26+; 100% URiM) attending historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and predominantly White institutions.	Results indicate spirituality, social support, self-esteem, and racial identity are positive factors associated with positive mental health in Black students.
	Qualitative study.	No significant differences were found in mental health among Black students attending historically Black colleges and universities and predominantly White institutions.
	Goal: To identify protective mechanisms promoting positive mental health.	The non-traditional students reported higher rates of moderate mental health than the traditional students.
		There was no difference in mental health between students attending HBCUs than those in predominantly White institutions.
Peteet et al. (2015a)	Single institution study of 112 Black undergraduate students.	The results reveal that higher IP scores predicts higher psychological distress, and lower self-esteem.
	Qualitative survey.
	Goal: To examine the extent to which Impostor Phenomenon (IP) predicts psychological distress and self-esteem.
Peteet et al. (2015b)	Single institution study of 161 URiM undergraduate students. The majority of participants (68%) were college juniors/seniors and had a GPA ≥ 3.0	The results revealed that low psychological well-being and low ethnic identity are predictors of IP.
	Qualitative survey.
	Goal: To examine the extent to which measures of first-generation status, psychological well-being, and ethnic identity predict Impostor Phenomenon (IP) scores among high-achieving URiM undergraduates.
Roche et al. (2020)	Single institution study of pipeline program for 10 high school seniors (100% URiM) from families with no parent having completed college.	Participants showed statistically significant changes in two major components of self-efficacy—“Belief in Personal Ability” and “Belief that Ability Grows with Effort.”
	Qualitative study.	Pre-program assessment showed that the students displayed high levels of self-efficacy from the outset suggesting that students who successfully applied and matriculated into the program already had high levels of self-efficacy.
	Goal: To determine what effect participation in a pipeline program has on the levels of self-efficacy in URiM high-school students.
Thomas and Dockter (2019)	Multi-site study of 329 Latinx middle school students (100% URiM).	Ethnic-racial identity related to higher levels of academic self-efficacy.
	Qualitative study.
	Goal: To investigate links between ethnic-racial identity and academic self-efficacy.
Yelorda et al. (2021)	Single-institution mixed methods study of 31 high school students (100% URiM) in a STEM enhancement summer program.	Most students scored in the high self-efficacy group for at least one domain:
	Goal: To measure self-efficacy across three domains.	65% for academic self-efficacy (defined as an individual’s belief that they can successfully perform academic tasks at specific levels).
		56% for social self-efficacy (defined as an individual’s confidence in his/her ability to engage in the social interactional task necessary to initiate and maintain interpersonal relationships).
		The lowest group (19%) was for emotional self-efficacy (defined as an individual’s convictions in one’s emotional functioning capabilities).
		Participants noted several themes necessary for educational success: fulfillment in academic challenges, focus on future goals, learning from failures, and asking for help from teachers and peers (social support).

⁵Publications referenced by first author and year.