Research: Mental Health and Well-being

Our group studies the human experiences of engineering students, faculty, and staff in relation to mental health. We work to develop proactive interventions to improve well-being. Ultimately, our group’s goal is to create environments in which all students, faculty, and staff can thrive.

We are doing this by

Collecting survey data longitudinally (collecting data multiple times over a period of years). In this study, we are examining factors for student mental health and a culture of stress.

Interviewing engineering students, faculty, and staff to learn about their experiences in engineering. What are the aspects of culture that contribute to stress?

Studying how mentors develop graduate student psychological safety in research groups: In collaboration with researchers at Virginia Tech, we are highlighting the experiences of graduate students’ psychological safety in a mixed-methods study.

Conducting workshops, both faculty training workshops and undergraduate and graduate student workshops, to expand knowledge on well-being.

Building community through hosting monthly virtual community meetings. Refer to the Mental Health and Wellness Virtual Community webpage (opens in new tab) for more information.

various research activities: interviewing, examining, discussing, surveying

Resources

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Engineering Stress and Culture Surveys

We have developed, refined, and confirmed two surveys that explore undergraduate engineering culture:

  • The Engineering Stress Culture (ESC) Scale
    • This scale is a 10-item measure of undergraduate student perceptions of engineering stress culture.
  • The Undergraduate Engineering Stressors Questionnaire (U-ESQ)
    • This is a 42-item questionnaire consisting of eight subscales that measure experiences of stressors that undergraduate engineering students often experience.

We have also developed, refined, and confirmed a survey that measures stressors in engineering doctoral programs:

  • The Stressors for Doctoral Students Questionnaire in Engineering (SDSQ-E)

We have launched these surveys at multiple institutions; related publications are in review.

To read and learn more

finger pointing to a page, reading

We have curated this short list of publications as a place for you to start learning about these projects. To learn more, visit the complete group publications.

Funded grants related to this topic

Return to the Thrive Lab Research Overview.