Strategies for Addressing Graduate Student Stress: A Detailed Report

This report addresses the critical issue of stress and mental health challenges faced by graduate students, proposing a comprehensive program for development, implementation, and evaluation. The program emphasizes community-based participatory research (CBPR) as a core strategy, involving various stakeholders such as academics, researchers, graduate and undergraduate students, family members, and professors. The report details how each stakeholder group can contribute to the program's success, outlining their roles, opportunities, and potential challenges. Program components include workshops on mindfulness and yoga, peer-led networking, training for advisors and professors, and wellness programs at student health centers. The report highlights the importance of family support and addresses potential barriers to program implementation, providing a well-rounded approach to supporting graduate student mental health. Desklib offers a wealth of similar resources for students seeking academic support.

“Undergraduate and graduate students alike often suffer from anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. Many
students move to new cities or countries to start their degree and thus lack social connections and support, commonly feel
overwhelmed by teaching and research loads, and often have persistent fears of failure and inadequacy. These and other
causes can lead to anxiety and depression that drain students’ creativity and motivation. In one study of over 3,000
international graduate students, 44% said they had mental health issues that “significantly affected their well-being or
academic performance”. In addition, these can lead to graver health concerns, most dramatically suicide, which, among college
students across 10 universities, was found to be highest among graduate students.”
• Program components could include, for example:
Workshops to teach yoga and mindfulness techniques
Peer led networking and socialization opportunities
Advisors and professors receive training on preventing, recognizing and addressing mental health issues in their students
Wellness programs offered at the student health center
You are leading a team of different stakeholders in an effort to develop, implement, and evaluate a
program to address the issue of graduate students and stress.
• What were some program strategies/activities for each levels of influence (look at the social
ecological model levels)
The major program strategy that was identified by the researchers was community-based participatory
research (CBPR) that was conducted in Baltimore. The strategy was formulated in the form of a
collaborative approach where all the stakeholders involved were responsible for providing necessary
input in the design and application of the strategy.
 18 participants were enrolled in the first workshop that comprised of an introduction to CBPR and
discussion of its accepted principles.
 This was followed by segregation of the participants into small groups that comprised of 3 or 4 of
them, followed by principle restatement and presentation of the interpretations to the larger
clusters.
 24 participants were segregated into smaller clusters in the second workshop, each of which was
assigned to the principles to be discussed (Burke et al. 2013).
This was based on the social-ecological model that takes into account the complex interaction between
relationship, community, societal and individual factors. The model was used based on its potential
advantage of developing the awareness of dynamic interrelations among numerous individual and
environmental factors.
• Identify stakeholders you will need to engage to develop, implement, and evaluate your program.
1. Academics and researchers
2. Graduate and undergraduate students
3. Family members
4. Professors at the colleges and university
For each group of stakeholders that you identified, complete the table below:
Who to
involve?
How to
involve?
“Opportunities” brought
to research process
“Challenges”
Academics They will act The stakeholders will They might use certain terms and jargons

and
researchers
as partners
and will
facilitate the
delivery of
necessary
knowledge
on the
program
components
allow gaining a sound
understanding of the
potential benefits of the
programs such as,
mindfulness based
techniques, wellness
program or peer led
networking.
They will also help in
understanding about the
probable adverse effects
that the interventions
might create on the
target population (Case
et al. 2014)
that will be difficult to interpret by the
common people, thus acting as a barrier in
gaining awareness on the program benefits
and drawbacks.
Graduate and
undergraduat
e students
They will be
subjected to
the
programs
for reducing
anxiety,
stress and
suicidal
ideations
Owing to the fact that
these students are most
subjected to stressful
situations and gradually
develop problems in
their cognitive and
psychosocial
functioning, they will
gain most benefits, from
the programs.
The students might be reluctant to
participate in such approaches and might
also have social fears that would prevent
them from interacting with other
stakeholders, or talking about their
concerns.
Family They will
also be
involved in
all the
strategies
that are
implemente
d
(Kieffer et al.
2013)
Family support is crucial
to recovery from any
kinds of mental or
psychological
abnormality. The family
members will also be
the first people who will
identify any variation or
modification in the
behaviour of the
students. They will also
monitor the progress of
the students, following
implementation of the
programs. Hence, they
will be partners in care.
Extra interference from the family members
might make it difficult to implement the
programs effectively.
Professors They will
provide
useful
insight into
the
behaviour of
the students,
Their feedback on the
concerns faced by the
students will prove
useful in modifying the
programs, as per
individual needs and
demands
Lack of time and support might be a
potential barrier

before and
after the
progam

References
Burke, J.G., Hess, S., Hoffmann, K., Guizzetti, L., Loy, E., Gielen, A., Bailey, M., Walnoha, A., Barbee, G. and
Yonas, M., 2013. Translating community-based participatory research (cbpr) principles into practice:
building a research agenda to reduce intimate partner violence. Progress in community health
partnerships: research, education, and action, 7(2), p.115.
Case, A.D., Byrd, R., Claggett, E., DeVeaux, S., Perkins, R., Huang, C., Sernyak, M.J., Steiner, J.L., Cole, R.,
LaPaglia, D.M. and Bailey, M., 2014. Stakeholders’ perspectives on community-based participatory
research to enhance mental health services. American journal of community psychology, 54(3-4), pp.397-
408.
Kieffer, E.C., Salabarria-Pena, Y., Odoms-Young, A.M., Willis, S.K., Palmisano, G. and Guzman, J.R., 2013. The
application of focus group methodologies to CBPR. Methods for Community-Based Participatory Research
for Health, pp.249-276.