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The research paper examines how engineering doctoral students describe their awareness and experiences with stress and mental health during their graduate studies. Despite the known bidirectional relationship between stress and mental health, there is limited research on how engineering doctoral students rationalize the disparity between the health consequences of chronic stress and the veneration of academic endurance in the face of these challenges. Given the dangers of chronic stress to physical and mental health, it is important to understand how students perceive the purpose and impact of stress and mental health within overlapping cultures of normalized stress. We conducted semi-structured interviews to understand participants' awareness, conceptualizations, and interpretations of stress and mental health. The research team analyzed interview transcripts using content analysis with inductive coding. Overall, we found that our participants recognized behavioral changes as an early sign of chronic stress while physical changes were a sign of sustained chronic stress; these cues signaled that participants needed additional support, including social support and campus mental health services. These findings support the need for greater mental health awareness and education within engineering doctoral programs to help students identify and manage chronic stress.
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Distress among undergraduates: Marginality, stressors and resilience resources
Objective: This study addresses mental health concerns among university students, examining cumulative stress exposure as well as resilience resources. Participants: Participants were 253 first- and second-year undergraduate students (age = 18.76; 49.80% male, 69% students of color) enrolled at a large western US university. Methods: Data were obtained from a cross-sectional online survey examining marginalized statuses and multiple stressors alongside coping responses, adaptive self-concept, and social support as predictors of stress, anxiety, and depression. Results: Multivariate regressions demonstrated significant associations between stress exposures and lower levels of resilience resources with each mental health indicator (with substantial R2 of.49-.60). Although stressor exposures accounted for significant increases in mental health concerns, their exploratory power was attenuated by resilience resources (e.g., beta decreases from.25 to.16). Conclusions: Better understanding cumulative adversity/resilience resource profiles, particularly among marginalized students, can help universities in prioritizing institutional support responses toward prevention and mitigating psychological distress.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2009977
- PAR ID:
- 10287394
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of American college health
- ISSN:
- 0744-8481
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Engineering students are increasingly reporting struggles with stress and mental health challenges during their undergraduate careers, yet most will only consider seeking support once they have reached a significant state of distress. While university campuses are increasingly establishing mental well-being centers and support structures for students, these efforts are reactionary and require student engagement outside the classroom. Mindfulness, a well-recognized mental health intervention, has shown significant promise as a preventive strategy that fosters a culture that prioritizes well-being in educational settings. This intervention offers many benefits for students beyond mental health, including improved focus, emotional regulation, stress reduction, enhanced cognitive performance, and overall well-being. Despite the growing need for such interventions, the adoption of mindfulness as a practice in engineering education remains limited. This paper proposes mindfulness as a proactive strategy for safeguarding students’ mental health in engineering education. Specifically, we draw from existing literature to dive into the benefits and potential feasibility of incorporating mindfulness into daily engineering curricula. By equipping engineering students to manage stress, we can better promote their overall well-being as students and as emerging career professionals, aiming to foster healthier engineering communities and workplace environments.more » « less
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Engineering students are increasingly reporting struggles with stress and mental health challenges during their undergraduate careers, yet most will only consider seeking support once they have reached a significant state of distress. While university campuses are increasingly establishing mental well-being centers and support structures for students, these efforts are reactionary and require student engagement outside the classroom. Mindfulness, a well-recognized mental health intervention, has shown significant promise as a preventive strategy that fosters a culture that prioritizes well-being in educational settings. This intervention offers many benefits for students beyond mental health, including improved focus, emotional regulation, stress reduction, enhanced cognitive performance, and overall well-being. Despite the growing need for such interventions, the adoption of mindfulness as a practice in engineering education remains limited. This paper proposes mindfulness as a proactive strategy for safeguarding students’ mental health in engineering education. Specifically, we draw from existing literature to dive into the benefits and potential feasibility of incorporating mindfulness into daily engineering curricula. By equipping engineering students to manage stress, we can better promote their overall well-being as students and as emerging career professionals, aiming to foster healthier engineering communities and workplace environments.more » « less
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Engineering students are increasingly reporting struggles with stress and mental health challenges during their undergraduate careers, yet most will only consider seeking support once they have reached a significant state of distress. While university campuses are increasingly establishing mental well-being centers and support structures for students, these efforts are reactionary and require student engagement outside the classroom. Mindfulness, a well-recognized mental health intervention, has shown significant promise as a preventive strategy that fosters a culture that prioritizes well-being in educational settings. This intervention offers many benefits for students beyond mental health, including improved focus, emotional regulation, stress reduction, enhanced cognitive performance, and overall well-being. Despite the growing needs for such interventions, the adoption of mindfulness as a practice in engineering education remains limited. In this paper, we propose mindfulness as a proactive strategy for safeguarding mental health in engineering education. Specifically, we draw from existing literature to dive into the benefits and potential feasibility of incorporating mindfulness into daily engineering curricula. By equipping engineering students to manage stress, we can better promote their overall well-being as students and as emerging career professionals, with the overarching goal to foster healthier engineering communities and workplace environments.more » « less
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