Graduate Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experiences, Mental Health, Support, and Marginalization

• In Event: Mental Health and Graduate Students

Abstract

COVID-19 has rapidly upended graduate students’ learning, research, and teaching, yet most institutional messaging and support, and the subsequent research on the effects of the pandemic, does not include graduate students. Institutional responses must create a sense of physical and emotional safety, generate trust and transparency, support collaboration, and be effective for students from all identities and backgrounds so that graduate students as people can thrive and learn. This multi-institutional cross-sectional quantitative study describes the experiences of graduate students during the pandemic across degree programs, explores student perspectives on institutional support and marginalization, and examines how students’ combined experiences relate to mental health, anticipated degree completion, and potential career changes.

Authors

• Rachel Smith, Iowa State University

• Garrett H. Gowen, Iowa State University

• Colter Ellis

• Kelly Knight

• Craig Olgivie, Montana State University

• Rosemary J. Perez, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Sarah Rodriguez, Texas A&M University - Commerce

• Nina Schweppe