Evaluating the Orbach Mikulincer Mental Pain Scale among Late Adolescent and Early Adult African Americans: A Rasch Analysis.

Although there are only a few psychometric investigations of mental pain measurement in the literature, there are no previous evaluations of mental pain scales among African Americans. The present study examined the Rasch measurement properties of the nine subscales contained in the Orbach-Mikulincer Mental Pain (OMMP) Scale among a sample of older adolescent and young adult African Americans. Results from the analyses suggest that three of the OMMP subscales meet the requirements of the Rasch model and hold promise for use in research and applied settings. Implications for further development and use of the remaining subscales are discussed.

A Student-Centered, Entrepreneurship Development (ASCEND) Undergraduate Summer Research Program: Foundational Training for Health Research.

Increasing the participation of students of African descent and other minoritized populations in the scientific workforce is imperative in generating a more equitable biomedical research infrastructure and increasing national research creativity and productivity. Undergraduate research training programs have shown to be essential tools in retaining underrepresented minority (URM) students in the sciences and attracting them into STEM and biomedical careers. This paper describes an innovative approach to harness students' entrepreneurial desire for autonomy and creativity in a Summer Research Institute (SRI) that has served as an entry point into a multiyear, National Institutes of Health Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (NIH BUILD)-funded research training program. The SRI was designed as an 8-week, student-centered and course-based research model in which students select their own research topics. We test here the effects of SRI training on students' science self-efficacy and science identity, along with several other constructs often associated with academic outcomes in the sciences. The data shown here comprise analysis of four different training cohorts throughout four subsequent summers. We show significant gains in students' science self-efficacy and science identity at the conclusion of SRI training, as well as academic adjustment and sense of belonging. SRI participants also displayed substantially improved retention in their science majors and graduation rates.

Student Affect During an HBCU Summer Research Program.

The popularity and effectiveness of intensive summer research programs to increase student self-efficacy is known. The Summer Research Institute (SRI) training experience, as part of undergraduate student training in Morgan State University's NIH BUILD program, uses an entrepreneurial approach to prepare students for careers in health-related research. Bandura's self-efficacy theory's (1977) four antecedents are represented in the SRI curriculum, which provides multiple opportunities for mastery experiences and for moments of roused feelings. These occurrences are accompanied by extensive multilayered mentoring, where the mentors provide verbal encouragement, and facilitate various modes of academic, psychosocial and institutional support. To our knowledge, student affect over time has not been tested to assess impact or program effectiveness in a summer research training program. This study is based on the qualitative assessment of bi-weekly journals of 28 students in the SRI. The practice of students consistently writing journals is aligned with the scaffolded knowledge integration framework proposed by Linn (1995). The journals were reviewed for their cumulative affective content and change over time. The students responded as expected with positive and negative affect throughout the program and ended with overwhelmingly positive affect with their concluding presentations. Using Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC), a text analysis program, we matched the fluctuations in affect to activities during the program and interpreted the changes for program assessment. This type of analysis opens a window into student affective responses to training components that, to our knowledge, have not been widely used for research training programs of this kind.

An entrepreneurial training model to enhance undergraduate training in biomedical research.

BACKGROUND: Undergraduate students who are interested in biomedical research typically work on a faculty member's research project, conduct one distinct task (e.g., running gels), and, step by step, enhance their skills. This "apprenticeship" model has been helpful in training many distinguished scientists over the years, but it has several potential drawbacks. For example, the students have limited autonomy, and may not understand the big picture, which may result in students giving up on their goals for a research career. Also, the model is costly and may greatly depend on a single mentor. KEY HIGHLIGHTS: The NIH Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Initiative has been established to fund innovative undergraduate research training programs and support institutional and faculty development of the recipient university. The training model at Morgan State University (MSU), namely "A Student-Centered Entrepreneurship Development training model" (ASCEND), is one of the 10 NIH BUILD-funded programs, and offers a novel, experimental "entrepreneurial" training approach. In the ASCEND training model, the students take the lead. They own the research, understand the big picture, and experience the entire scope of the research process, which we hypothesize will lead to a greater sense of self-efficacy and research competency, as well as an enhanced sense of science identity. They are also immersed in environments with substantial peer support, where they can exchange research ideas and share experiences. This is important for underrepresented minority students who might have fewer role models and less peer support in conducting research. IMPLICATIONS: In this article, we describe the MSU ASCEND entrepreneurial training model's components, rationale, and history, and how it may enhance undergraduate training in biomedical research that may be of benefit to other institutions. We also discuss evaluation methods, possible sustainability solutions, and programmatic challenges that can affect all types of science training interventions.