Faculty Support and Student Wellbeing in High-Diversity STEM Graduate Programs

More equitable admissions and recruitment practices will only lead to reduced inequalities in PhD attainment if faculty create learning environments in which graduate students thrive. To that end, this presentation will report findings from a multi-method research project composed of two studies focused on equity and wellbeing in STEM graduate education. Study 1 in this project is a multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary analysis of depression and anxiety among US graduate and professional students. Using a sample of more than 20,000 students randomly sampled within 69 universities, I compare depression and anxiety prevalence among fields of study with hierarchical cluster modeling. Then, I estimate fixed effects multivariate logistic regressions to measure how depression and anxiety are associated with experiencing racial discrimination; support from faculty, friends and family; and perceived competitiveness in one’s classes. Study 2 in the project offers a qualitative, comparative case study of the forms and sources of support that women and underrepresented minority students in high-diversity STEM PhD programs report as salient to their persistence and wellbeing. Contrary to expectations, I find that students view faculty as a last resort for academic support. However, students benefit greatly from faculty feedback that enables them to properly interpret academic struggles not as a matter of ability, but rather as a matter of experience and effort. Students also report significant benefit when faculty, regardless of race or gender background, open conversations about the everyday realities of race and gender dynamics in the academy. Findings are integrated with extant theory and research to advance a conceptual model for holistic student support and wellbeing in STEM graduate education.