It's a Marathon Not a Sprint: A Quantitative Study of Burnout and Well-Being Among Ethnically Minoritized Doctoral Students (Poster 19)

• In Event: Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

"Doctoral students can experience high levels of stress, negative affect, and reduced well-being throughout their program. Across all disciplines, graduate programs have reported relatively high student attrition rates, and doctoral students are reporting an increase in mental health concerns. One possible reason for mental and physical health concerns among doctoral students is burnout. Research shows that burnout is positively related to both psychological distress and turnover intentions. Although burnout has been investigated in helping professional degree programs, the literature examining burnout in non-helping professions is insufficient.
Research has demonstrated that ethnic minority students face additional stressors in their doctoral education, such as discrimination, tokenism, and a lower sense of belonging. Some ethnic minority graduate students have reported that they did not receive satisfactory supervision compared to their peers and felt that they were less likely to receive the support they needed for projects and to be taken seriously as a scholar. Given the high attrition rates, the decrease in psychological well-being, and the extra stressors ethnic minority students face this study examined factors that could contribute to ethnic minority doctoral student burnout (e.g., imposter feelings, advisor working relationship, perfectionism, cultural congruency). Using Schaufeli et al. (2020) conceptualization of burnout, this dissertation examines the extent to which personal and organizational factors predict the four components of burnout. Four separate hierarchical multiple regressions were used to answer the research questions. The findings from this study could be used to inform doctoral educational practices and mental health support"

Author

• Taylor Payne, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author