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The vacancy of STEM jobs outstrips the supply of qualified candidates. This gap has stimulated numerous investigations addressing the shortage at early stages, that is, the vocational qualification of STEM professionals. Given that both the academic life and the working context of STEM disciplines are particularly challenging, individuals’ psychological capacity to rebound from adversity (i.e. their resilience) appears to be an essential resource in STEM careers. Therefore, in a three-wave longitudinal study, we investigate the development of commitment to STEM disciplines in 234 students. Specifically, our prospective longitudinal design allows us to examine the role of individual resilience for maintaining committed to STEM disciplines while accounting for the students’ history of setback exposure. Consistent with our theorizing, the results of latent growth curve modeling show that the relationship between resilience and the development of affective commitment over time is curvilinear. Whereas high levels of resilience prove beneficial in the face of setbacks, a ‘too-much-of-a-good-thing’ effect is observed for highly resilient individuals in the absence of adversity. By considering person-situation interactions that go beyond mere linear propositions, our findings contribute to the literature on commitment development and further help situate resilience as a personal capacity. Our study hence offers important implications in terms of preventing the ‘leaky pipeline’ of qualified STEM graduates by helping students stay committed to these disciplines.
Datzer et al. (Wed,) studied this question.