2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Research increasingly investigates graduate student mental health concerns. Some survey instruments have sampled graduate students; however, these have generally not been tested at national scales. National-scale surveys do sometimes sample from graduate student populations, but often lack instruments specific to graduate students or to students by academic disciplines. Towards addressing these gaps, we developed the Graduate Student Module (GSM) for the Healthy Minds Survey, which captures experiences specific to graduate students. In this paper, we build upon our previously presented design process and validity evidence for this new instrument, and present new reliability and validity evidence from a pilot administration of the GSM. Specifically, we answer the questions: what are the latent factors uncovered in the GSM's culture items and how do these factors measure engineering graduate students’ mental health experiences?

The 35-item GSM measures mental-health-related experiences in graduate programs, including funding sources, program culture, academic stressors, advisor relationships, and research group relationships. We conducted a GSM pilot study with N=782 graduate students, including a subsample of n=156 engineering graduate students. We present an exploratory factor analysis, the resulting instrument modification, and reliability estimates and interpretations for the resulting factors. We also connect the GSM latent factor score interpretations to existing theories of engineering culture and wellbeing. We interpret the survey by invoking a theoretical framework derived from Godfrey and Parker’s 2010 work on engineering culture and Bronfenbrenner's bioecological systems theory.

Results suggest evidence of a valid and reliable instrument that will be included as an optional module for use in future administrations of the Healthy Minds Network’s Healthy Minds Study. This instrument will be used to describe and differentiate graduate students’ mental health experiences by academic disciplines, including engineering. The GSM can inform and evaluate programmatic interventions supporting student mental health, to thereby improve graduate engineering students’ satisfaction, retention, and achievement.