Supporting Undergraduate Engineering Students Who Are Primary Caregivers to Children: A Systematic Literature Review

Introduction: Perhaps surprisingly, about one in five undergraduate students is a caregiver. These students may have different needs than other students. Because data on student caregivers is less likely to be collected than data on other student groups, there are substantial gaps in our understanding of their experiences, including their unique challenges and strengths as well as best practices for supporting them. There is very little research that focuses specifically on student caregivers who are studying engineering, a field that may require extra lab time and other subject requirements that contribute to the unique needs in the field. Objective: The primary purpose of this study is to answer the questions (1) What does previous research indicate about the experiences of student caregivers? and (2) How does that knowledge apply to recruiting and retaining undergraduate engineering students? Methods: This paper uses the Khan et al. methodology for conducting a systematic literature review, applied to research on student caregivers, focused on (1) identifying what is known about them, including their challenges, strengths, and experiences, (2) understanding interventions designed to support them and the results of those interventions, and (3) exploring how this knowledge and evidence applies (or might apply) specifically to engineering students. Results: Findings include that student caregivers differ from other students in significant ways: they are more likely to be women, in community college, and/or from racially minoritized backgrounds. Student caregivers also tend to have higher GPAs, and they have a tendency to feel isolated. The three major challenges that they face involve time constraints, lack of knowledge about available resources for caregiving students, and lack of access to affordable child care. Strengths of of caregiving students include a tendency to have higher motivation levels and better time management skills. Conclusion: This research makes an important contribution in that it is one of the first to explore how the literature related to student caregivers might apply specifically to engineering students. The paper includes recommendations for better meeting the needs of caregiving students based on the review of literature and can lead to a study that inquires if these recommendations are also helpful in supporting engineering students or whether they have unique needs. Given that the demographics of student caregivers mirror the demographics of those who are underrepresented in engineering, better meeting the needs of student caregivers is likely to be a crucial piece of the puzzle in remedying the inequities in engineering education.