Keywords
Abstract
This article highlights protective factors that will sustain persistence in demanding, academically demanding, and professionally oriented fields by offering a thorough review of mental resiliency as a foundational process in influencing academic and career development among undergraduate STEM students. By demonstrating how hardiness acts as a strong defense against the negative effects of academic stressors, life traumas, career ambiguity, and numerous failed trials that are inherent to the STEM educational environment, this investigation incorporates recent empirical evidence into an explanation of complex issues at the intersection between psychological resilience and success outcomes in STEM-related fields of study. Within a multileveled ecological system of environmental influences (laboratory culture, mentorship relationships, and institutional support systems) and individual characteristics (sex, cultural background, and past educational experiences), these developmental processes operate. According to the theoretical model, resilience has multifaceted effects because it can be attributed to both direct stress-buffering effects and indirect mediating pathways in a situational dependent manner. This means that underrepresented populations require multifaceted intervention strategies that address both the immediate need for stress-protection coping and the underlying psychological processes that translate resilience into career-related outcomes.
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