Date Approved

5-31-2024

Embargo Period

6-3-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.) Higher Education

Department

Educational Leadership, Administration, and Research

College

College of Education

Advisor

Stephanie Lezotte, Ph.D.

Committee Member 1

Andrew Tinnin, Ed.D.

Committee Member 2

Tyrone McCombs, Ph.D.

Keywords

Coping Mechanisms; Coping Strategies; Doctoral Students; International Students; Non-Traditional Students; Stress

Subject(s)

Students, Foreign; Students--Mental health

Disciplines

Higher Education | Psychology

Abstract

Higher education institutions are battling with the shrinking enrollment rate of students and the various college alternatives (Drozdowski, 2022); however, it has been evidenced in the literature that these issues can be augmented with international student enrollments and adult learners (Donaldson, 2022). Pursuing a doctoral degree is a tedious move (Devonport & Lane, 2014), and leaving one’s comfort zone to study in a different land for non-traditional international students can be exhausting due to the responsibilities at hand. Thus, this qualitative study examines the stressors experienced by non-traditional international doctoral students, the coping mechanisms utilized in the cause of these stressors, and their perception of doctoral stress. The study participants consisted of four non-traditional international students. The findings generated two major themes of stressors namely: personal stressors and academic stressors, alongside two sub-categories of coping strategies which include personal and institutional coping strategies. Overall, participants perceive doctoral stress as a temporal phase of life.

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