Doctoral Students' Resilience and Well-Being as Mediators of Perceptions of Racial Climate on Program Satisfaction

• In Event: Marginalized Graduate Student Experiences and Trajectories

Abstract

Using a sample of 1,229 current doctoral students as part of the Council of Graduate Schools’ Understanding PhD Career Pathways for Program Improvement project, this study utilizes structural equation modeling to provide empirical evidence of direct and indirect effects of doctoral program racial climate, student resilience, and well-being on doctoral program satisfaction. Situated within Tinto’s interactionalist theory and Astin’s theory of student involvement, the findings suggest the need for doctoral programs to integrate efforts to improve doctoral program racial climate while simultaneously attending to students’ resilience and well-being. In addition, this study cautions against focusing exclusively on resilience and well-being as poor program racial climate disparately impacts students of color.

Authors

• Radomir Ray Mitic, University of North Dakota

• Hironao Okahana, Council of Graduate Schools