Graduate Student Well-Being: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Recent studies indicate that graduate students experience higher levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and physical health issues, resulting in the lowest levels of well-being compared to other groups in higher education settings. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated these negative experiences. This study aims to evaluate recent research on well-being of graduate students through a systematic review. The study was conducted by searching article abstracts in databases: JSTOR, Science Direct, ERIC, DergiPark, and TR Dizin using both Turkish and English keywords. A total of 781 publications were reviewed, and 12 studies were included in the detailed analysis based on predefined eligibility criteria. The review results show that the concept of well-being has been approached from different theoretical perspectives and research methods. Key findings indicate that graduate students face unique stressors, such as work-life imbalance, high academic pressures, faculty-student relationships, socialization within academic communities, and often limited social support, all of which contribute to lower well-being. Based on the results, several recommendations for supporting graduate students' well-being in both their academic and personal lives are proposed.

Keywords

• well-being
• graduate students
• higher education
• systematic review

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