Table 2. Percent of students and demographic differences in who selected each factor that influenced their decision to stay in their first URE.
| Factor that may have influenced whether a student chose to stay in their first URE | Percent of all students who selected the factor % (n) n = 556 |
Percent of stayers who selected the factor % (n) n = 384 |
Percent of waverers who selected the factor % (n) n = 172 |
Summary of demographic differences among which students reported the factor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I am gaining important skills or knowledge+ | 84.5% (470) |
88.3%*** (339) |
76.2% (131) |
Continuing generation college students were 1.9 times more likely than first generation college students to stay in research because they are gaining important skills or knowledge. |
| Research experience is important for my future career+ | 84.0% (467) |
84.6% (325) |
82.6% (142) |
Male students were 1.9 times more likely than female students to stay in research because it is important for their career. |
| The lab is flexible with my schedule/time | 82.0% (456) |
84.1% (323) |
77.3% (133) |
|
| My lab mentor who is a PI, faculty member, graduate student, postdoc or staff member+ | 77.7% (432) |
81.8%*** (314) |
68.6% (118) |
|
| I am interested in my research topic+ | 73.4% (408) |
79.2%*** (304) |
60.5% (104) |
|
| The overall environment of my lab+ | 68.9% (383) |
78.1%*** (300) |
48.3% (83) |
|
| I enjoy my everyday research tasks+ | 57.2% (318) |
66.1%*** (254) |
37.2% (64) |
White students were 2.1 times more likely than URM students to stay in research because they enjoy their everyday research tasks. |
| I have sufficient guidance for my research project+ | 46.9% (261) |
52.6%*** (202) |
34.3% (59) |
|
| I have enough time to do research | 42.6% (237) |
46.6%** (179) |
33.7% (58) |
|
| I am concerned I may not have another opportunity | 27.3% (152) |
20.6% (79) |
42.4%*** (73) |
Asian students were 1.8 times more likely than white students to stay in research because they are concerned there will not be another opportunity. For every one point decrease in GPA, a student was 1.8 times more likely to select that they are concerned that there will not be another opportunity. |
| Doing research positively contributes to my financial situation | 17.1% (95) |
17.7% (68) |
15.7% (27) |
First generation college students were 1.9 times more likely than continuing generation college students to stay in research because it positively contributes to their financial situation. White students were 2.3 times more likely than Asian students to stay in research because it positively contributes to their financial situation. |
Chi-square tests of independence were conducted to test whether there were differences between the percent of stayers and waverers who reported each factor; significant differences are marked with an asterisk:
*p≤0.05,
**p≤0.01,
***p≤0.001.
Logistic regression was used to test to what extent student demographics predicted whether a student would select a particular factor, and the results are summarized in the table.
+indicates factors that were reflected by at least 10% of students in the coding of the open-ended data.
Two students (0.4%) did not select any factors.