"My Mental Support and My Scientific Support": Mentoring Relationships Between STEM Doctoral Students and Postdocs

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 17
  In Roundtable Session: Advising, Mentoring, and Building Relationships in Graduate Education

Abstract

Expanding on the phenomenon of “cascading mentorship,” this paper examines STEM doctoral students’ relationships with lab postdocs using a sequential mixed methods design. We analyzed interview data from 53 fourth-year Ph.D. students in the biological sciences to understand student-postdoc mentoring relationships. Then, we contextualized emergent themes with survey data to illuminate how postdoc mentorship relates to key doctoral student outcomes. Findings suggest that postdocs provide instrumental and psychosocial support to Ph.D. students. Results also illustrate a positive association between instrumental support and students’ mental health/wellbeing outcomes. Taken together, we posit that understanding doctoral student-postdoc mentoring relationships in STEM, particularly across gender and minoritized racial/ethnic identities, has critical implications for graduate education and trajectories beyond the Ph.D.

Authors

• Jennifer M. Blaney, Northern Arizona University

• Jina Kang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Annie M. Wofford, Northern Arizona University

• David F. Feldon, Utah State University