Clinical trial NCT06445751: Step Up for STEM and Health Careers
Official title: Step up for STEM and Health Careers: An Interactive Digital Resource to Reduce STEM-related Biases and Improve High School STEM Learning Environments
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: TERMINATED
Phase: PHASE2
Conditions: Adolescent Behavior
Keywords: STEM
Adolescents
Diversity
Digital Games
Lead sponsor: Ohio State University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Resilient Games Studio
name: University of Chicago
name: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
First posted: 2024-06-06
Enrollment: 24
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 13
Maximum age (years): 19
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: The goal of this randomized controlled trial is to evaluate "Step Up for STEM and Health Careers". The "Step Up for STEM and Health Careers" ("Step Up") game is an interactive, digital resource that includes the key elements of a bystander intervention for high school students to understand the importance of diversity in STEM; it also addresses skills, attitudes, and awareness to attain positive STEM identities and mitigate bias and harassment in STEM and health learning environments.

Participants in the intervention arm will be asked to complete the Step Up interactive game; participants in the comparison group will be asked to view a PowerPoint presentation on bias and harassment in STEM/health fields as the control experience. The Step Up game intervention and study outcomes are theory-based (Theory of Planned Behavior, Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT)): we will assess the impact of Step Up on attitudes about STEM/health careers, STEM/health career self-efficacy, and bystander behavior.

Detailed description: The goal of this randomized control trial is to evaluate the impact of the "Step Up for STEM and Health Careers" intervention game on STEM/health career and bystander attitudes, as well as self-efficacy. Participants will be randomly assigned to participate in either the Step Up intervention game or the educational PowerPoint presentation.

The "Step Up for STEM and Health Careers" intervention consists of students playing a "Step Up" game to help them understand the importance of diversity in STEM and health careers, attain STEM/health career self-efficacy, and create an inclusive learning environment for others. The control group consists of an educational PowerPoint presentation on the importance of diversity in STEM and health careers, STEM/health career self-efficacy, and creating an inclusive learning environment for others.

The Step Up intervention game (created by Resilient Games Studio (RGS)) consists of six digital episodes that focus on a specific topic: importance of diversity in STEM careers, heuristics and biases, structural biases and intersectionality, harassment, sexual harassment, and bystander behaviors. Each episode includes interactive mini-games to teach theory-based skills and lessons. Adult characters, who serve as "in-game" STEM/health role models, are integrated throughout the game. The game was built based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) to improve STEM/health career and bystander attitudes, as well as self-efficacy.

The educational PowerPoint presentation on bias and harassment in STEM/health fields was also created by RGS and will be used as a control experience for adolescent participants. The PowerPoint presentation will contain sections that correspond to each of the episode topics of the Step Up intervention game.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* English-speaking
* Access to a computer and internet connection
* Live in Chicago Metropolitan Area
* Current high school student (enrolled in grade 9-12); or in 12th grade in 2023-2024 school year

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Primary outcomes:
measure: STEM/health career attitudes using modified Career Interest (Christensen, et al., 2014) and STEM Semantics (Knezek and Christensen, 2008) questionnaires
timeFrame: From baseline pre-test immediately preceding randomization to post-test up to 3 days post intervention/comparator
measure: STEM/health career self-efficacy using a modified Career Interest Questionnaire (Christensen, et al., 2014)
timeFrame: From baseline pre-test immediately preceding randomization to post-test up to 3 days post intervention/comparator
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Intent to pursue a STEM/health career using a modified Career Interest Questionnaire (Christensen, et al., 2014)
timeFrame: From baseline pre-test immediately preceding randomization to post-test up to 3 days post intervention/comparator
measure: Knowledge of the value of diversity in STEM/health careers using a questionnaire
timeFrame: From baseline pre-test immediately preceding randomization to post-test up to 3 days post intervention/comparator
measure: Intent to intervene as a bystander when witnessing harassment on the basis of race, gender, disability status, etc., using a questionnaire derived from the Bystander Questionnaire (Garza et al., 2023; McMahon and Banyard, 2012)
timeFrame: From baseline pre-test immediately preceding randomization to post-test up to 3 days post intervention/comparator
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Columbus
country: United States
facility: Ohio State University
state: Ohio
Study officials:
affiliation: Resilient Games Studio
name: Tim Parsons
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
References: