Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton

This study explores the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in qualitative research, specifically examining how large language models (LLMs) can be utilized to code qualitative data and identify relationships among coder-defined themes. The approach is particularly useful for cases where researchers have previously-identified themes and hypotheses but lack the resources to code a large corpus of data manually. We outline a multi-step methodological framework grounded in qualitative research traditions, whereby researchers first conduct manual coding using a grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2006; Glaser & Strauss, 1967) on a subset of the data. The resulting codes are then applied to the remaining data using a model-assisted process that integrates natural language processing, AI-based text classification (Noah et al., 2024), and topic identification. Lastly, this is followed by statistical analyses to test hypotheses and expected patterns, providing a robust approach to ensure reliability and accuracy. We illustrate this process through the systematic application of locally-run AI for coding interview transcripts related to graduate students’ experiences in four Ph.D. programs at a large research university. We demonstrate how AI can improve the efficiency, consistency, and scalability of qualitative research without sacrificing confidentiality. This study highlights the potential for AI to enhance qualitative research processes while addressing challenges related to nuance and interpretation.

North Korean refugee (NKR) undergraduate students in South Korean universities often conceal their NKR identity to mitigate discrimination, a strategy that can impede social connection and access to vital resources for college adjustment. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a resilience-disclosure intervention designed to encourage strategic identity management over complete concealment. In a quasi-randomized controlled trial, NKR students were assigned to either a resilience-disclosure intervention (n = 75) or a control intervention (n = 68) condition. The resilience-disclosure intervention highlighted strengths associated with participants’ stigmatized NKR identity and encouraged intergroup contact, while the control intervention focused on general strategies for college success without addressing NKR identity. Results demonstrated that the intervention significantly buffered the decline of identity disclosure among participants with heightened concerns about identity-based rejection. These findings contribute to the literature on psychological interventions, intergroup relations, and the experiences of individuals with CSIs, offering practical strategies to address challenges faced by NKRs.Keywords: Concealable stigmatized identity, identity reframing, strength-based, intergroup contact, rejection sensitivity

The importance of creating diverse and equitable environments in higher education has gained growing recognition in recent years (Allen, 2005). While individual-level bias training has shown limited efficacy, this study proposes that program structure—characterized by clear, transparent, and uniformly applied standards, expectations, and norms—may be a more effective route to equity. Leveraging data from a large U.S. public university, we present evidence from multi-level modeling that demonstrates the positive relationship between program structure and equity-related outcomes, including psychological well-being and academic performance. Notably, these effects appear to disproportionately benefit women and underrepresented minority students, suggesting that structure may be particularly impactful for marginalized students, who are often excluded from informal informational networks within their departments. This research contributes to the ongoing dialogue on practical strategies for achieving equity in higher education, offering an alternative to individual-focused interventions. We discuss the theoretical implications for research on marginalized groups and provide actionable recommendations for practitioners. The study highlights the potential of structural approaches in fostering more equitable and inclusive learning environments in higher education.

Editorial: Diversifying the STEM fields: From individual to structural approaches

Disclosure—the sharing of personal information—has long been appreciated as a key element of strong, close relationships. But its exploration in educational contexts has been limited. In the present study, we examine whether disclosure in mentoring relationships between a college student and a school-based “adult” is associated with benefits, controlling for the student’s achievement and assessments of their potential. Using data from a selective university that includes both mentor and mentee reports (N=143 pairs), we find that mentoring relationships characterized by greater personal disclosure provide mentees with more resources and continue to a greater extent after mentees graduate.

The main objective of this study was to examine the role of social context as a main mechanism to understand how organizational socialization tactics influence job inclusion of employees with disabilities (EWD). Specifically, we analyzed the influence of socialization that employees without disability received by the organization on two indicators of EWD's job inclusion, organizational learning, and desire to stay in the organization. First, we examined the mediator role of social support perceived by EWD in the aforementioned relationships. Second, we used a cross‐level moderating approach to examine how an inclusive team context (affective climate toward disability and stigma shared by team members without disability) impacts on the relationship between EWD's perceptions of social support and both indicators of job inclusion. Our sample was composed by 258 employees included in 66 teams from 15 organizations. Each team included one worker with disability. Two sources of information were used: EWD to measure perceived social support and indicators of job inclusion, and coworkers to measure socialization tactics, team affective climate toward disability, and team stigma. We used multilevel modeling and cross‐level moderation with MPLUS to test our hypotheses. Our results showed that EWD's perceptions of social support mediated the relationship between organizational socialization tactics and both indicators of EWD's job inclusion. Team affective climate toward disability and team stigma moderated the relationship between EWD's perceptions of social support and organizational learning. Thus, the social context showed potential improving EWD's job inclusion. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Gender and racial diversity in tech is a persistent issue in the United States. Efforts to increase diversity may not be effective due to moral licensing and viewing underrepresented groups interchangeably. Moral licensing has focused on effects within one identity (displays of feminist beliefs leading to sexist actions). We test whether moral licensing can reverberate across identities: cross-identity moral licensing (displays of feminist beliefs leading to racist actions). Study 1, showed no effects of moral licensing on hiring decisions using the original manipulation. In Study 2, hiring managers in the tech sector completed two successive hiring rounds, with the first designed to license the second. White women were negatively impacted by same-identity and cross-identity moral licensing, while there were no effects of moral licensing for Black men. This work provides preliminary evidence that cross-identity moral licensing could help explain why efforts to increase representation fall short for women in tech.

In the present article, we use daily diary methodology to investigate how coping influences well-being via the engagement of positive emotions in immigrant farmworkers and university students from diverse ethnic backgrounds. In Study 1, in a sample of Latinx immigrant farmworkers (N = 76), we found that the daily use of adaptive coping strategies predicted greater daily well-being, and that this relationship was accounted for by greater daily experiences of positive emotions. In Study 2, in a sample of college students from Latinx, Asian, and European American backgrounds (N = 336), we replicated the mediating effect of positive emotionality on the effect of adaptive coping on daily well-being and extended these findings to an examination of longitudinal well-being. This work provides evidence of one mechanism by which coping affects well-being and is one of the first studies of these dynamics in Latinx samples.