Understanding Stress and Relief: How Engineering Graduate Students Experience and Cope with Stress

The mental health of graduate students, as well as the gap between coping needs and available resources, has recently become of interest in the engineering education community. Graduate students are of two worlds: they retain the student stress of juggling multiple classes, deadlines, and social lives, while also attempting to transition into the adult world where they take on many new responsibilities. As such, it is unsurprising that graduate students experience a significant amount of stress from many different sources. Previous work has demonstrated a correlation between the amount of discrete stressors (including academic and personal) and the quantified stress level of graduate students. However, more qualitative analysis is still needed to more accurately characterize the stressors graduate students face, and the coping mechanisms they use to mitigate the ill effects of stress. This paper seeks to answer the following research questions: (1) What elements of the engineering graduate student experience cause students stress? And (2) What methods of coping do students depend upon to persist in engineering graduate education? To answer these questions, we surveyed graduate engineering students at a mid-sized Mid-Atlantic institution. The survey consists of three major sections: (1) the Perceived Stress Questionnaire, a validated instrument that assesses an individual's perceived stress level, (2) a section for respondents to identify and rank major sources of stress, and (3) a section for respondents to identify and rank major coping strategies. This work focuses on the three open-ended questions included in the survey: (1) “Please elaborate on your sources of stress if you choose”, (2) “Please elaborate on your coping mechanisms if you choose”, and (3) “What else would you would like to share with us regarding your sources of stress, coping mechanisms, or success at managing stress?”. Survey responses were analyzed using two-cycle inductive thematic coding. Some overarching themes identified across all responses include a struggle to keep track of responsibilities in many areas (typically classes, research, and personal needs), transitioning from student life to adulthood or feeling “stuck” between student life and adulthood, problematic cultures of stress in departments or in engineering as a field, and a need to dissociate/disconnect from academic responsibilities in order to feel relaxed (referencing anything from time with friends to alcohol). These trends were additionally examined by stress level (low/moderate/high). Results indicate that graduate students with low levels of stress tend to practice self-reflection and disconnection from their academic responsibilities to relax, while students with higher stress levels identify structural problems with their department (problematic professors, unclear or unreasonable expectations, cultures that discourage or penalize making mistakes, etc.) or personal difficulties adjusting/persisting in the program (feelings of isolation, struggles with self-care or organization, creating a liveable routine, etc.).