TABLE 7.
Self-reported ways that depression affected PhD students’ teaching or the graduate student as an instructor
| Factor | Description | % (n) (N = 43)a | Example quote | Example quote |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Negative effects on depression on graduate student teaching | ||||
| Disconnected or disengaged from undergraduates | Depression can cause graduate students to feel disengaged when teaching or to have trouble connecting with undergraduates. | 16 (7) | Student 18: “[When I have depression], I can feel disconnected from the [undergraduates]. I’ll go to my day of teaching, I lead these discussion sections and I’m going through the motions. I don’t really put my full heart into it in terms of going out of my way to connect with the [undergraduates] or being more enthusiastic.” | Student 49: “But there were many days that my depression, through various avenues, caused me to be absentminded [while teaching]. (…) Just less attentive and [less] engaged.” |
| Felt down or lacked energy when teaching | Depression can cause graduate students to be less energetic or to have a low mood when teaching. | 14 (6) | Student 4: “There’s been times where I’ve just been unable to prep for classes, or have prepped very little, just because I’m just struggling with myself and trying to get through things. It upsets me, because I feel like I’m letting the undergrads down.” | Student 13: “I’m sure [my students] have been able to tell when I’ve shown up to classrooms just depressed. And that’s not what they’re paying for, and they’re paying a lot.” |
| Positive effect of depression on graduate student teaching | ||||
| Understanding of student issues | Depression can positively impact graduate students as instructors because they are more understanding or sympathetic to student struggles, including mental health issues. | 23 (10) | Student 16: “[My depression] maybe makes me a little more empathetic with the undergraduates that I teach. And I know that since depression is a big deal for me, it may be as big deal for them. I’m able to empathize better and help people seek out the right resources if necessary, and also give them a leniency that they need if they can’t accomplish something in the time it’s due because of their illness.” | Student 48: “I think it makes me more empathetic to the plights of undergraduate students, because I know that they also experience a lot of these [mental health] problems, and so I think it makes me more sympathetic to their problems.” |
aForty-three out of the 50 students who participated in the study had experience teaching undergraduates either as a TA or as an instructor of record. We only considered the responses from the TAs with teaching experiences when calculating the percent of students who reported each theme.