Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Graduate Student Mental Health: Insights from the Healthy Minds Network Dataset

Abstract

This paper explores the mental health of science, engineering, and mathematics (SEM) graduate students using quantitative analysis on the survey data provided by the Healthy Minds Network (HMN): Research on Adolescent and Young Adult Mental Health group, coined the Healthy Minds Study (HMS).The aim of this study is to answer the following research question: How does the presence of (a) self-sufficiency, (b) sense of belonging, and/or (c) social self-efficacy impact an SEM graduate student's mental health?To do so, this paper presents the quantitative data analysis that was performed using data collected from 2007-2013 by the HMN.Of the 89,486 student responses from this timeframe, roughly 2,439 students responded as United States graduate students in the natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering, with 1,201 responses being complete.Using these 1,201 responses, descriptive and bi-variant statistics were performed and reported with regards to the research question.The anticipated results included how, if at all, the three concepts of self-sufficiency, sense of belonging, and social self-efficacy vary among different graduate student demographics, and if these demographics have an impact on the prevalence of mental health problems.The hope is that SEM graduate students, faculty, and staff can use these results to influence individual and programmatic changes to improve SEM graduate student mental health.