Research Initiation: Graduate Student Mental Health and Stress in Engineering

心理健康是研究生项目成功的关键因素。然而，之前的研究表明，研究生教育中的心理健康危机日益严重，这可能会导致生产率、离职和学生幸福感等问题。工科学生也不能幸免于这场危机，但他们是最不可能在心理健康问题上寻求帮助的学科之一。尽管有这一趋势，但提供循证实践来解决工程学研究生心理健康问题的原因和持续性的文献相对缺乏。为了满足这一需要，并开始倡导系统性变革的进程，这个项目将探索教师和学生对心理健康的态度如何与当心理健康危机发生时指导行动的机构特征相交叉。在学术界了解心理健康的这些方面，是朝着改变导致工程界心理健康危机永久化的政策和做法迈出的第一步。这个项目将开发循证实践，以改善研究生工程项目中的学生心理健康服务。这项研究还将培养一名新的工程教育教员，通过培养他的技能，使他成为工程教育研究社区的一名贡献成员。为了实现上述目标，本研究将系统地探索教师和学生对心理健康的态度如何与机构特征相交织，并塑造方案趋势。具体来说，本项目将回答以下研究问题：(1)影响学生心理健康态度的制度和个人特征是什么？(2)影响教师对心理健康态度的制度和个人特征是什么？(3)不同工科学位课程对心理健康的态度有哪些不同？为了回答这三个研究问题，本工作将采用三个阶段的多方法定性研究。在第一阶段，工程学研究生和工程学教师将通过使用解释性现象学分析来考察他们对心理健康的态度。每组人的态度将被分别检查，然后每组人将进行比较，以了解这些感知相互交汇并影响行动的方式。利用第一阶段的经验，第二阶段将完善现有的面试方案，并开发用于演绎编码的码本。第三阶段将利用第一阶段和第二阶段的结果，以现象学的方式检查研究生和教职员工对心理健康的态度是如何在部门结构和文化中受到影响的。每个阶段的结果都将突出显示参与者的生活经历如何影响他们对心理健康的态度和行为，以及制度结构如何在这些态度上造成差异。所有阶段的调查结果将被用来改变加剧精神健康危机的机构政策和做法。具体地说，我们将与大学咨询中心和工程项目合作，制定符合新发现和现有最佳实践的政策和培训。培训将在当地和全国范围内进行，以推广支持工程学研究生发展的模式。这项工作的共同努力将培养一名新的工程教育研究人员，同时改变文化缺省，以消除寻求心理健康服务的障碍、耻辱和后果。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Mental health is a key attribute for success in graduate programs. However, previous studies demonstrate a growing mental health crisis in graduate education, which can contribute to issues with productivity, departure, and student well-being. Engineering students are not immune to this crisis, yet are one of the least likely disciplines to seek help for mental health concerns. Despite this trend, there is a relative lack of literature available to provide evidence-based practices for addressing the causes and persistence of mental health issues for engineering graduate students. To address this need and to begin the process of advocating for systemic change, this project will explore how faculty and student attitudes about mental health intersect with the institutional features that direct action when a mental health crisis arises. Understanding these facets of mental health in academia is a first step toward changing the policies and practices that have perpetuated the mental health crisis in engineering. This project will develop evidence-based practices to improve student mental health services in graduate engineering programs. The study will also develop a new engineering education faculty member by fostering his skills and equipping him to be a contributing member of the engineering education research community.To accomplish the above goals, this study will systematically explore how faculty and student attitudes about mental health intersect with institutional features and shape programmatic trends. Specifically, the project will answer the following research questions: (1) What are the institutional and individual features that influence students’ attitudes about mental health? (2) What are the institutional and individual features that influence faculty attitudes about mental health? (3) What are the different attitudes about mental health across engineering degree programs? To answer the three research questions, this work will employ a three-phase multi-method qualitative study. In Phase 1, engineering graduate students’ and engineering faculty’s attitudes about mental health will be examined through the use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The attitudes of each group will be examined separately and then each group will be compared to understand the ways these perceptions intersect and influence action. Leveraging the experiences of Phase 1, Phase 2 will refine existing interview protocols and develop a codebook for deductive coding. Phase 3 will utilize the results of Phases 1 and 2 to phenomenographically examine how graduate student and faculty attitudes about mental health are influenced across departmental structures and cultures. The results from each of these phases will highlight the ways participants’ lived experiences influence their attitudes about and actions toward mental health and the ways institutional structures create variability in these attitudes. Findings from all phases will be used to shift institutional policies and practices that exacerbate the mental health crisis. Specifically, we will work with university counseling centers and engineering programs to develop policies and training that are aligned with emergent findings and existing best practices. Training will be conducted locally and nationally to propagate models that support engineering graduate student development. The combined efforts of this work will develop a new engineering education researcher while shifting cultural defaults to remove barriers, stigmas, and consequences that surround seeking mental health services.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.