Visualizing Stress and Relief: How stressors and coping mechanisms interact in engineering graduate student experiences

Jacob Troutman; Darby Riley; Kaitlin Mallouk

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Graduate Studies Division Technical Session 4
Page Count: 16
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--40583
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/40583
Download Count: 886

Paper Authors

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Kaitlin Mallouk Rowan University

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Kaitlin Mallouk is an Assistant Professor and Undergraduate Program Coordinator in Experiential Engineering Education at Rowan University. Prior to beginning that role, she spent five years an Instructor in the Mechanical Engineering and Experiential Engineering Education Departments at Rowan. Kaitlin has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University and an MS and PhD in Environmental Engineering in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois.

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Darby Riley Rowan University

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Darby Riley is a student of engineering education at Rowan University. She has a special interest in issues of diversity and inclusion, especially as they relate to disability and accessibility of education. Her current research is focused on the adoption of pedagogy innovations by instructors, specifically the use of reflections and application of the entrepreneurial mindset. Her previous research experience includes examination of implicit bias in the classroom, and application of VR technologies to improve student engagement. Darby hopes to pursue a career in STEM education and educational research.

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Jacob Troutman University of Texas at Austin

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I am a doctoral candidate in Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. My primary research interests lie in alloys and nanomaterials for drinking water treatment, but I am also interested in how we teach the next generation of environmental engineers.

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Abstract

Graduate students are poised in a unique place in life, facing the challenges of being full-time students while also maintaining independent, adult lives with the responsibilities that accompany both roles. As such, it is no surprise that graduate students report experiencing a significant amount of stress. For some students, this stress can serve as motivation. For other students, though, this stress can overwhelm and debilitate, causing students to struggle academically, develop mental health problems, or be at higher risk of disease. Though each individual’s response to stress is different, numerous stressors have been identified that are common to the graduate education experience (e.g., classes and grades, research appointments, etc.), as have the various coping mechanisms (e.g., peers, mindfulness-based stress relief, exercise, etc.) that students use. While these individual stressors and coping mechanisms are important, it remains unclear how these different stressors and coping mechanisms might interact to compound or diminish student stress. The combination of stressors experienced by graduate students, as well as the combination of coping mechanisms used by graduate students can be characterized using resource networks, similar to social networks created for understanding interactions among people. The major aim of this project is to increase the understanding of the stress and coping mechanism networks of graduate students, as well as how these two different networks interact. The results will facilitate the development of better support programs for graduate students. In this paper, we seek to answer the following research questions: (1) What are the primary stressors and coping mechanisms of current graduate students, and (2) What are the major differences between coping networks of students who are able to successfully manage stress versus those who are not able to? 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 (S. Levenstein, et al. J. Psychosom. Res., vol 37, no. 1, pp. 19-32, 1993.), which is 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. The survey identified research, grades, and issues relating to mental health as major stressors for all groups, and people, including friends, family, and significant others, as the primary coping mechanisms used by students. Resource network analysis confirmed that these primary stressors and coping mechanisms often appeared together in responses. When results were sorted by ability to manage stress, it was found that students who were poorer at managing stress often had more sources of stress, and that these sources were not always related to their responsibilities as graduate students. Poorer stress managers also tend towards more passive coping mechanisms, such as watching TV/movies or eating food. These results indicate that struggling students may have trouble finding healthy coping mechanisms in their home lives, and so might require extra recognition and support from their faculty advisors and peers.

Citation
Format

Mallouk, K., & Riley, D., & Troutman, J. (2022, August), Visualizing Stress and Relief: How stressors and coping mechanisms interact in engineering graduate student experiences Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40583

TY - CPAPER
AB - Graduate students are poised in a unique place in life, facing the challenges of being full-time students while also maintaining independent, adult lives with the responsibilities that accompany both roles. As such, it is no surprise that graduate students report experiencing a significant amount of stress. For some students, this stress can serve as motivation. For other students, though, this stress can overwhelm and debilitate, causing students to struggle academically, develop mental health problems, or be at higher risk of disease. Though each individual’s response to stress is different, numerous stressors have been identified that are common to the graduate education experience (e.g., classes and grades, research appointments, etc.), as have the various coping mechanisms (e.g., peers, mindfulness-based stress relief, exercise, etc.) that students use. While these individual stressors and coping mechanisms are important, it remains unclear how these different stressors and coping mechanisms might interact to compound or diminish student stress. The combination of stressors experienced by graduate students, as well as the combination of coping mechanisms used by graduate students can be characterized using resource networks, similar to social networks created for understanding interactions among people. The major aim of this project is to increase the understanding of the stress and coping mechanism networks of graduate students, as well as how these two different networks interact. The results will facilitate the development of better support programs for graduate students.
In this paper, we seek to answer the following research questions: (1) What are the primary stressors and coping mechanisms of current graduate students, and (2) What are the major differences between coping networks of students who are able to successfully manage stress versus those who are not able to? 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 (S. Levenstein, et al. J. Psychosom. Res., vol 37, no. 1, pp. 19-32, 1993.), which is 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. The survey identified research, grades, and issues relating to mental health as major stressors for all groups, and people, including friends, family, and significant others, as the primary coping mechanisms used by students. Resource network analysis confirmed that these primary stressors and coping mechanisms often appeared together in responses. When results were sorted by ability to manage stress, it was found that students who were poorer at managing stress often had more sources of stress, and that these sources were not always related to their responsibilities as graduate students. Poorer stress managers also tend towards more passive coping mechanisms, such as watching TV/movies or eating food. These results indicate that struggling students may have trouble finding healthy coping mechanisms in their home lives, and so might require extra recognition and support from their faculty advisors and peers.
AU - Kaitlin Mallouk
AU - Darby Riley
AU - Jacob Troutman
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Visualizing Stress and Relief: How stressors and coping mechanisms interact in engineering graduate student experiences
UR - https://peer.asee.org/40583
DO - 10.18260/1-2--40583
ER -