Stresses of COVID-19 for Doctoral Students in Engineering

Building on a small body of mostly questionnaire research collected in 2020 about stresses of COVID-19 on doctoral students, in 2021–2022 we interviewed 55 PhD engineering students four times each. Coding for various COVID-19 related stressors suggested a similar set of stressors as found across the whole set of previous papers reporting on early-COVID-19 stresses, but with more prominent worry for self, family, and friends, perhaps due to the Omicron surge in January 2022. A nexus of visa/travel/family/quarantine stressors was found in our more highly-international sample, who had been separated from family for longer. Concerns about getting research done waned and waxed as conditions on campus changed. Similar to undergraduates, these students missed social interactions and relied greatly on family for coping.