This quantitative study utilized surveys to explore how science doctoral students receive support from their dissertation advisors and its relationship to graduate student success outcomes. The survey was distributed to active doctoral students majoring in the sciences at one large, public, Southeastern University. Within examining how the support science doctoral students receives relates to graduate student success outcomes, the study also examined additional factors that could influence graduate student success such as the participant size of the laboratory group, experience with undergraduate research, and time in program. Findings revealed that on average science doctoral students report receiving more psychosocial support than career support. Students who reported higher levels of satisfaction with their laboratory group and those who had female advisors, were more likely to report receiving higher levels of psychosocial support. Also, students who reported higher levels of satisfaction with their laboratory group and having a female advisor, were more likely to report receiving higher levels of career support. Those students who had been the program longer, reported receiving less career support. This was also true for identification. The longer students were in the program, the less likely they would report identifying or wanting to emulate their advisor. There was a statistically significant relationship between overall level of satisfaction with the advisor relationship and receiving career and psychosocial support. There was also a significant relationship between reporting high levels of satisfaction with the advisor relationship and reporting high levels of satisfaction with the laboratory group. Lastly, there was significance found between students reporting identifying with the advisor and expressing high levels of satisfaction with the advisor relationship. No statistically significant relationship was found between the levels of support received and number of academic benchmarks or scholarly works. There was also no statistically significant relationship found between levels of support or graduate student success outcomes with the number of participants in a laboratory group. The study results indicated science doctoral students who have been the most successful at meeting graduate student success outcomes receive more psychosocial support from their advisors than career support. However, the more science students felt that their advisor was assisting them with career support, the more satisfaction they experienced with the overall advisor relationship. Advisors from other disciplines can look to increase the amounts of career support they provide to their students. Time in program was the only significant predictor of number of academic benchmarks met for science doctoral students. This needs to be explored in other disciplines given that most students in the sciences are only in the program for five to six years. The variable, scholarly works, was found to have two significant predictors, which were experience with undergraduate research and having had started the dissertation project. Undergraduate advisors and program directors from all disciplines should look to encourage their students who are interested in pursuing doctoral education to engage in undergraduate research as it will help them to progress more successfully through a graduate program. Doctoral advisors and program directors from all disciplines should look to create a curriculum that encourages students to start their research project as early as possible. The level of satisfaction with the laboratory group was a significant predictor to the satisfaction with the advisor relationship, to receiving more career and psychosocial support, and to identifying the advisor more. Therefore, more research is needed regarding the influence of the laboratory group and graduate student success outcomes in the sciences. Overall, the results of the study provide insight as to how other disciplines and programs may improve their student success outcome rates by understanding some mechanisms that are contributing to the success of science doctoral students.

The purposes of this study were to (a) determine graduate students' perceptions of the effectiveness of the delivery system and their level of comfort with the delivery system, (b) determine graduate students' perceptions of the effectiveness of the delivery system and their level of comfort with the teacher, (c) determine graduate students' level of comfort with the delivery system and their level of comfort with the teacher, (d) determine differences in graduate students' ratings of the effectiveness of the delivery system before a distance education session and after a distance education session, and (e) determine differences in graduate students' level of comfort with the teacher before a distance education session and after a distance education session.

Many graduate students (60%) do not complete their program of study. It is important for universities to find ways to increase student completion rate. The general problem is that online U.S. universities are faced with a high rate of PhD student drop out resulting in an increased number of students not being able to complete their doctoral studies. The purpose of this multiple linear regression study was to identify predictor variables of dissertation student stress and overall dissertation satisfaction. Deci and Ryan's self determination theory and Lazarus' theory of cognitive appraisal were used to guide this research to identify how student perception of mentor communication styles can be used to predict how students appraise stress and overall satisfaction with dissertation. A convenience sample of 178 dissertation students identified through several online dissertation student support and student-led Facebook groups completed the online survey. According to study results, student perception of questioning and preciseness as mentor communication styles predicted significantly lower scores of student appraisal of stress experienced in dissertation. However, student perception of verbal aggressiveness as a mentor communication style predicted significantly higher scores of student stress. Mentor behaviors of academic assistance, mentoring abilities, and personal connection predicted significantly higher levels of overall student dissertation satisfaction. Positive social change initiatives formed by faculty and staff can be made to educate dissertation chairpersons about the communication style and behaviors that are the most effective in mentoring dissertation students.

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<p>Graduate students are a critical part of academia and the academic environment. However, literature suggests that graduate students, as a community, are also experiencing concerns with mental well-being.</p> <p>  Increasingly stressful life situations and academic rigor as well as a culture of celebrating overwork and the stress of academia, have been linked as contributors toward mental distress and a general decline in well-being for graduate students.</p> <p>  One of the biggest factors in determining the success and well-being of graduate students is their faculty adviser. </p> <p>  A supportive adviser that is well matched to a student's interests and working style can likely lead to the graduate students being more likely to graduate, to have increased scholarly output, and to find a job after graduation. It stands, then, that faculty advisers may also have an effect on the mental well-being of their students.</p> <p>  However, there is currently a lack of information about how students match with the mentoring and management styles of their advisors as well as how they may find surrogate support systems, such as social media, to persevere during their graduate program or what support gaps they might fill with online communities.</p> <p>  Therefore this study explored the needs of graduate students, how graduate students may turn to online communities as an means of support, and how faculty advisors can be better matched with graduate students to help guide them toward success in graduate school. The resulting knowledge from this study can provide insights for developing enhanced methods for 1) matching students and advisors based on management and mentoring styles, 2) understanding the evolution of graduate students needs over time, and 3) establishing more thoughtful admission metrics/processes for graduate schools. In addition, an investigation into social media platforms can help us better understand how graduate students use social media for support during their studies as well as identify some common graduate student challenges and helpful strategies to mitigate these challenges. Ultimately, establishing this knowledge can be one step toward generating a more supportive and collaborative academic community which can in turn support the well-being of graduate students</p> <p>  </p> <p>According to the results of this study, the data suggests that graduate students are experiencing stress resulting from differences in the styles of management and mentoring between them and their faculty advisors. </p> <p>This stress can be linked to the pressures placed upon them related to scholarly output without clearly defined objectives for them. </p> <p>Student participants also indicated that they doubted the quality of their graduate work and had the feeling they were not moving forward.</p> <p>Some common challenges described by students via social media posts were linked to the limited guidance and/or mentorship received.</p> <p>In regard to turning to social media for support, it seems as though graduate students tend to use social media platforms to either share negative experiences that they faced or milestones achieved within their graduate programs.</p> <p>The findings suggest that the graduate students may use social media without expecting or receiving feedback on how to handle any challenges posted.</p> <p>In addition, graduate student survey participants also indicated that their advisors used primarily a ``coaching" style, indicating a low level of advisor involvement, with a high level of student involvement. </p> <p>While a majority of participants indicated that their advising style on the Student-Advisor Involvement Matrix was a “coaching” model, the managerial style responses were more varied. </p> <p>This may indicate that students do not clearly know how to define their advisors management style, or that their rankings reflect emotional response to their advisor rather than the style itself. </p> <p>That being said, the findings also suggests that there may be an opportunity to better investigate, align, and/or prepare for the management and advising styles between advisors and students.</p> <p> </p> <p>While this study has limitations, the results can provide insight toward to creation of tools for matching prospective graduate students with faculty advisors based on interests as well as management and mentoring styles.</p> <p>In addition the common challenges experienced by graduate student identified via the social media analysis as well as as the shared strategies for addressing these challenges can be used for developing potential interventions for supporting faculty advisor and graduate student relationships. </p> <p>For example, the interventions can include additional management training for faculty advisors, increased mental health services for graduate students, support for understanding how graduate student needs change over time, graduate student planning tools, empathetic mentorship training, or improved graduate student handbooks.</p>

Faculty mentorship is considered an important component of graduate education. Faculty supervisors of graduate student assistants are in a unique position to enhance the personal and career development of their supervisees. Yet, little is known about the relationship between supervision and mentorship in graduate education. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between mentoring behavior and supervisory approach as reported by faculty supervisors of graduate student assistants at Virginia Tech. Data were collected using the Mentor Behaviors Questionnaire and Supervisory Approach Inventory and analyzed using analysis of variance. The findings suggested that faculty provided career mentoring behaviors as a result of academic culture and the perceived role of faculty rather than the influence of gender, prior mentoring experience, or length of relationship. However, faculty with no prior mentoring experience, might be unaware of the value of psychosocial mentoring in promoting personal development of their assistants, especially in male-male relationships. A positive relationship between synergistic supervision and mentoring was established which suggested that productive supervisory practices and mentoring behavior were similar. Faculty who had more contact with students reported higher levels of career mentoring. Reward and recognition were suggested as incentives for increasing student contact which might foster career mentoring. Surprisingly, graduate assistant supervisors reported higher rates of mentoring behaviors than teaching or research assistant supervisors, thus challenging the commonly held perception that research assistants were more likely to receive mentoring support from faculty than other types of assistants. The information generated by this study is useful in identifying faculty behaviors associated with mentorship and establishing the link between assistantship supervision and mentorship opportunity. Student affairs and graduate education professionals may find that the implementation of faculty mentor training programs is a useful tool in promoting the psychosocial and career development of students. / Master of Arts

Mindfulness meditation (MM) has been used as an intervention tool for mental health diagnosis in the field of social work for some time and there are numerous empirical literature and research about the benefits of MM in practice. Despite the evidence and the use of MM in the field, there is very limited incorporation or MM programs and courses in the Master of Social Work (MSW) education and curricula. This study aimed to explore MSW students’ perspectives on mindfulness meditation and whether they would find it beneficial in their curricula. The study collected qualitative data through interviews MSW graduates at a Southern California University. The data collected was analyzed through ATLAS software. The findings of the study give way for future research to help note the interest of MM within MSW students and how it can help benefit MSW students personally and professionally by providing education and practice in the MSW education field. Participants expressed desire to learn more about MM, as they did not feel equipped to confidently practice it in the field. Including MM practice and education could help fortify the field of social work by creating better MSW professionals due to its benefits.