A Study on Graduate Students: Perceptions of Stress, Job Engagement, Satisfaction, and the Buffering Effects of Social Support and Coping Style

Committing to training in a graduate program in psychology has been shown to be associated with high levels of stress as the result of having to adapt to demands and challenges (Goplerud, 1980; 2001). To date, scant research has been conducted on how stress affects graduate students' career engagement and satisfaction.;Results from this study found that psychology graduate students experienced less satisfaction and engagement with their chosen careers when perceiving high degrees of life stress. Students tended to benefit from utilizing social support and a mixture of problem- and emotion-focused coping. Emotion-focused coping appeared to decrease the amount of life and academic stress, whereas problem-focused coping increased satisfaction and decreased life stress. However, social support was not a moderating factor between life and academic stress, engagement or job satisfaction.;Future research should focus on identifying specific factors that contribute to stress, satisfaction, and engagement in graduate students. Additionally, the types of social support employed and found most useful for students should be differentiated and analyzed. Limitations to this study may include the semester sampling was conducted and also that regression analyses, which does not show direct cause and effect, was employed.;The goal of this dissertation was to determine if psychology graduate students' stress is negatively correlated with career engagement and satisfaction, and to what degree coping style and social support moderate the effects of perceived stress.