Investigating the tension between persistence and well‐being in engineering doctoral programs

Abstract

Background: While studies examining graduate engineering student attrition have grown more prevalent, there is an incomplete understanding of the plight faced by persisting students. As mental health and well-being crises emerge in graduate student populations, it is important to understand how students conceptualize their well-being in relation to their decisions to persist or depart from their program.Purpose/Hypothesis: The purpose of this article is to characterize the well-being of students who endured overwhelming difficulties in their doctoral engineering programs. The PERMA-V framework of well-being theory proposes that well-being is a multifaceted construct comprised of positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, accomplishment, and vitality.Design/Method: Data were collected in a mixed-methods research design through two rounds of qualitative semistructured interviews and a survey-based PERMA-V profiling instrument. Interview data were analyzed thematically using the PERMA-V framework as an a priori coding schema and narrative configuration and analysis. Results:The narratives demonstrated the interconnectedness between the different facets of well-being and how they were influenced by various experiences the participants encountered. The participants in this study faced prolonged and extreme adversity. By understanding how the multiple dimensions of well-being theory manifested in their narratives, we better understood and interpreted how these participants chose to persist.

Edu-Track+: Mejorando Motivación Académica Intrínseca y Rendimiento Académico Universitario en Aulas Hyflex

“…Teniendo en cuenta que la carrera doctoral es un proceso que requiere de mucha persistencia y que autores alertan sobre la relación entre la persistencia y la salud mental (Shanachilubwa et al, 2023) considerando que el éxito doctoral no estaría completo si la persona no logra conjuntamente con sus resultados de estudio y su titulación doctoral, un bienestar psicosocial estable; para ello resulta importante el apoyo social (Williams et al, 2019) la fortaleza interpersonal como factor crítico que contribuye a la persistencia (Williams-Shakespeare et al, 2018) y la promoción del bienestar eudaemónico, asociado a la verdadera felicidad, al involucramiento afectivo, al interés, la motivación y la alegría (Ilies et al, 2005).…”