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arxiv: 2602.13774 · v2 · submitted 2026-02-14 · 💻 cs.SE

A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of Coaching to Mitigate the Impostor Phenomenon in Early-Career Software Engineers

Pith reviewed 2026-05-15 22:28 UTC · model grok-4.3

classification 💻 cs.SE
keywords impostor phenomenoncoaching interventionsoftware engineeringearly-career engineersquasi-experimentClance Impostor Phenomenon Scalewait-list controlteam dynamics
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The pith

Coaching produced modest reductions in impostor feelings among early-career software engineers, yet the untreated control group improved similarly, pointing to team and project contexts as stronger drivers.

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

The study tests whether a three-session group coaching program can reduce impostor phenomenon feelings more effectively than ordinary passage of time and team experience in software engineering settings. Researchers ran a small quasi-experiment with twenty participants split across two project teams, using a wait-list design so one group received coaching while the other was observed first. Impostor scores dropped modestly after coaching, but the control group showed comparable drops during its observation-only phase. This pattern suggests that daily collaboration, project demands, and simple awareness over time may account for much of the change rather than the structured sessions alone. The work matters because impostor feelings are reported widely in software teams, and knowing whether formal coaching adds distinct value helps organizations allocate limited support resources effectively.

Core claim

The three-session coaching intervention produced modest reductions in Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale scores for the treatment group, but the wait-list control group exhibited comparable improvements during the preceding observation phase, indicating that broader contextual and temporal factors within team collaboration and project work may exert stronger influence on impostor feelings than the formal coaching program.

What carries the argument

The wait-list control quasi-experimental design with pre- and post-CIPS measurements plus non-participant observation, which compares coached changes against natural changes during the waiting period.

If this is right

  • Coaching can support reflection and awareness around impostor feelings but does not clearly outperform ordinary team and project exposure.
  • Team collaboration and ongoing project work appear to contribute to reductions in impostor scores independently of the intervention.
  • Future support efforts in software engineering should consider embedding reflection opportunities within existing team routines rather than relying solely on standalone sessions.
  • The modest overall changes highlight that contextual factors deserve equal attention when designing interventions for early-career engineers.

Where Pith is reading between the lines

These are editorial extensions of the paper, not claims the author makes directly.

  • Larger trials with participants drawn from separate teams could test whether coaching adds measurable value once team dynamics are removed as a confound.
  • Organizations could experiment with lightweight, continuous team practices that encourage open discussion of competence doubts instead of scheduling discrete coaching blocks.
  • Similar patterns may appear in other high-expertise technical domains where project pressure and peer comparison are common.
  • Tracking participants several months after the study would reveal whether any observed reductions persist or fade once project contexts change.

Load-bearing premise

The small sample of twenty participants sharing team contexts allows the three coaching sessions to be isolated as the primary cause of score changes rather than time, project work, or group dynamics.

What would settle it

A larger study that keeps participants isolated from shared team contexts during the waiting period and finds no improvement in the control group's CIPS scores would indicate that coaching itself produces a distinct effect.

Figures

Figures reproduced from arXiv: 2602.13774 by Allysson Allex Araujo, Jean Natividade, Joan Leite, Marcos Kalinowski, Maria Teresa Baldassarre, Paloma Guenes, Rafael Tomaz.

Figure 1
Figure 1. Figure 1: Timeline of measurements and intervention phases. [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p006_1.png] view at source ↗
Figure 2
Figure 2. Figure 2: Evolution of Average CIPS Scores throughout the [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p007_2.png] view at source ↗
Figure 3
Figure 3. Figure 3: Evolution of Average CIPS Scores by subgroups (G1- [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p007_3.png] view at source ↗
Figure 4
Figure 4. Figure 4: Comparison of score distributions across the study timeline (T0–T3) for all five psychological scales. Dashed horizontal [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p009_4.png] view at source ↗
Figure 5
Figure 5. Figure 5: Correlation matrices of psychological scales at base [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p009_5.png] view at source ↗
read the original abstract

Context: The Impostor Phenomenon (IP), the persistent belief of being a fraud despite evident competence, is common in Software Engineering (SE), where high expectations for expertise and innovation prevail. Although coaching and similar interventions are proposed to mitigate IP, empirical evidence in SE remains underexplored. Objective: This study examines the impact of a structured group coaching intervention on reducing IP feelings among early-career software engineers. Method: We conducted a quasi-experiment with 20 participants distributed across two project teams using a wait-list control design, complemented by non-participant observation. The treatment group received a three-session coaching intervention, while the control group received it after an observation phase. IP was assessed using the Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (CIPS), alongside evaluated measures of well-being (WHO-5), life satisfaction (SWLS), and affect (PANAS). Results: The coaching resulted in modest reductions in CIPS scores, whereas the control group also improved during the observation phase, suggesting that contextual and temporal factors may have exerted a stronger influence than the formal intervention. Conclusion: These results suggest that coaching may support reflection and awareness related to IP, yet other contextual aspects of team collaboration and project work might also contribute to these changes. This study offers a novel empirical step toward understanding how structured IP interventions operate within SE environments.

Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, simulated authors' rebuttal, and a circularity audit. Tearing a paper down is the easy half of reading it; the pith above is the substance, this is the friction.

Referee Report

2 major / 1 minor

Summary. The manuscript reports a quasi-experimental study with a wait-list control design involving 20 early-career software engineers in two teams. It evaluates the effect of a three-session group coaching intervention on reducing impostor phenomenon (IP) as measured by the Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (CIPS), along with secondary measures of well-being (WHO-5), life satisfaction (SWLS), and affect (PANAS). The results indicate modest CIPS reductions in the treatment group, but similar improvements in the control group during the observation phase, leading to the conclusion that contextual and temporal factors may have a stronger influence than the intervention itself.

Significance. If the findings hold after addressing design limitations, this work provides a valuable empirical contribution to software engineering by examining structured interventions for the impostor phenomenon in authentic team settings. It underscores the potential role of coaching in fostering reflection while highlighting how team collaboration and project work may independently influence IP, filling a noted gap in SE-specific evidence and offering a basis for larger-scale studies.

major comments (2)
  1. [Method] Method section: The wait-list control design with a total sample of 20 participants split across two non-randomized project teams lacks the power and controls needed to isolate the unique causal effect of the three-session coaching from team dynamics, project timelines, and natural maturation. The control group's improvement during the observation phase directly illustrates this confounding risk, yet no group-by-time interaction test or equivalent analysis is reported to show that coaching effects exceed background changes.
  2. [Results] Results: The manuscript describes 'modest reductions' in CIPS scores for the treatment group without reporting effect sizes, confidence intervals, p-values, or full statistical outputs for the pre-post comparisons. This absence weakens the ability to evaluate the practical magnitude and reliability of the changes relative to the control group's parallel improvement.
minor comments (1)
  1. [Abstract] The abstract would benefit from explicitly stating the sample size (n=20) and noting the absence of randomization to better contextualize the quasi-experimental nature for readers.

Simulated Author's Rebuttal

2 responses · 0 unresolved

We thank the referee for the constructive feedback on our quasi-experimental study. We address each major comment below and have revised the manuscript to incorporate additional analyses and statistical reporting where feasible.

read point-by-point responses
  1. Referee: [Method] Method section: The wait-list control design with a total sample of 20 participants split across two non-randomized project teams lacks the power and controls needed to isolate the unique causal effect of the three-session coaching from team dynamics, project timelines, and natural maturation. The control group's improvement during the observation phase directly illustrates this confounding risk, yet no group-by-time interaction test or equivalent analysis is reported to show that coaching effects exceed background changes.

    Authors: We agree that the small sample size and non-randomized team-based assignment represent inherent limitations of this quasi-experimental design in a real-world SE context, and that the control group's parallel improvement underscores the influence of contextual and temporal factors. To directly address the request for an interaction test, we have added a group-by-time analysis (using a mixed ANOVA) to the Results section. This test shows no significant interaction, consistent with our interpretation that coaching effects did not exceed background changes. We have also expanded the Limitations subsection to explicitly discuss statistical power constraints and the exploratory nature of the study. revision: yes

  2. Referee: [Results] Results: The manuscript describes 'modest reductions' in CIPS scores for the treatment group without reporting effect sizes, confidence intervals, p-values, or full statistical outputs for the pre-post comparisons. This absence weakens the ability to evaluate the practical magnitude and reliability of the changes relative to the control group's parallel improvement.

    Authors: We thank the referee for highlighting this omission. We have revised the Results section to include Cohen's d effect sizes, 95% confidence intervals, and p-values for the pre-post CIPS changes in both groups. These details, along with the full descriptive statistics, are now presented in a new summary table. This allows readers to better assess the practical significance and compare the magnitude of changes across conditions. revision: yes

Circularity Check

0 steps flagged

No significant circularity: empirical quasi-experiment with direct measurements

full rationale

The paper reports a quasi-experimental study using a wait-list control design with 20 participants and established scales (CIPS, WHO-5, SWLS, PANAS). It presents direct pre-post score comparisons and non-participant observations without equations, derivations, fitted parameters, or modeling. Central claims rest on observed data and contextual interpretation rather than any self-referential definitions, predictions derived from fits, or load-bearing self-citations. No ansatzes or uniqueness theorems are invoked, so the analysis is self-contained against external benchmarks like the validated instruments.

Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger

0 free parameters · 2 axioms · 0 invented entities

The central claim depends on the validity of standard psychological scales and the assumption that the quasi-experimental design can separate intervention effects from team and temporal confounds in a small sample.

axioms (2)
  • domain assumption The Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (CIPS) provides a valid and reliable measure of impostor feelings in early-career software engineers.
    Study uses CIPS scores as primary outcome without additional validation in the SE population.
  • domain assumption The wait-list control plus non-participant observation design adequately controls for time, project context, and other non-coaching influences.
    Interpretation that control improvements reflect contextual factors rather than design limitations rests on this premise.

pith-pipeline@v0.9.0 · 5575 in / 1363 out tokens · 51873 ms · 2026-05-15T22:28:42.804447+00:00 · methodology

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