This research is situated in the context of an NSF-funded Scholarships in STEM (S-STEM) grant emphasizing mentoring and undergraduate research that enrolls students from two US Hispanic-Serving Institutions in Southern California. This S-STEM targets the transfer pathway between a local two-year institution and the regional four-year institution. Program mentorship and research experiences were designed to increase persistence in STEM majors, with an emphasis on chemistry, by increasing students’ scientific values, science identity, and science self-efficacy. Changes over time and differences among groups of students in these affective domains have been of interest to the STEM education community, including chemistry educators, but there is little research comparing these affective traits across institution types.
Students enrolled in chemistry courses at both institutions were surveyed at the beginning and end of the fall 2023 semester. Three latent factors were measured using the Scientific Values, Science Identity, and Science Self-Efficacy (SciVISE) instrument. A latent variable approach with structured means modeling was used for time and group comparisons across the theoretically error-free latent variables. First, measurement invariance across time points and institutions was tested. Second, changes over a semester in student scientific values, identity, and self-efficacy were examined. Lastly, we compared latent means in these affective traits between the two-year and four-year institutions. Results show that the measurement model is invariant across time and institutions. There was no significant change in the three affective constructs over a semester. We also found no institutional differences in scientific values, identity, and self-efficacy when only STEM majors were compared. Implications of these results for supporting students in STEM degrees will be discussed.