‘Take a break, you’ll be able to work more’: convergent mixed methods analysis of PhD students’ blog posts

0583554 - PSÚ 2025 GB eng J - Journal Article
Avilés, D.J.V. - Jang, Y. - Urban, Marek
‘Take a break, you’ll be able to work more’: convergent mixed methods analysis of PhD students’ blog posts.
Studies in Continuing Education. únor (2024). ISSN 0158-037X. E-ISSN 1470-126X
Institutional support: RVO:68081740
Keywords : Higher education * doctoral education * stress * mental health * convergent mixed method research
OECD category: Psychology (including human - machine relations)
Impact factor: 1.5, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0158037X.2024.2319806

The pursuit of a PhD is associated with increased mental health risks, with commonly identified stressors that include supervision, financial constraints, hierarchical institutional culture, and specific work demands. However, previous investigations primarily relied on self-reported questionnaires. In this study, a convergent mixed-methods analysis was conducted on 94 blog posts written by doctoral students in English (N = 39), Spanish (N = 29), and Korean (N = 26). An inductive thematic analysis was employed to identify themes related to PhD studies. To succeed in academia, blog posts emphasised the importance of cultivating autonomy, resilience, purpose, intrinsic motivation, and self-regulatory skills. Intriguingly, the pursuit of academic achievement was exclusively associated with negative mental states. Subsequently, a qualitative-to-quantitative transformation (i.e. quantitising) was applied to the data, allowing a statistical examination of intercultural differences among the samples. The Spanish sample was concerned with challenging funding, academic culture, and gender stereotypes. The Korean sample highlighted problematic supervisory relationships and gender stereotypes. The English sample focused on maintaining mental health, albeit all coping mechanisms were perceived as mere instruments for improving productivity. Key implications include the recognition of cultural nuances in the experience of stressors and the importance of addressing mental health concerns in academic settings.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0351569