The purpose of this research paper is to explore how engineering doctoral students recognize the influence of stress and mental health within engineering graduate education. 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 phenomenologically-guided thematic analysis and 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.

Research Initiation: Graduate Student Mental Health and Stress in Engineering, National Science Foundation (NSF) PI: David Feil-Seifer, co-PI: Adam Kirn, Amount: $200,000, Jan. 1, 2021 - Dec. 31, 2022