1. Women Graduate Students: Balancing Graduate Studies and Marital Relationships Joshua Gold Michelle Maher Andrea Chen College of Education University of South Carolina February 27, 2004

2. Historical Perspective on Married Students 1900:Married students unknown 1920s:Married students first enrolled in postsecondary education  Marriage perceived as having negative impact on academic efforts  Those who did enroll were often expelled 1940s:GI Bill – married veterans attend college, but not considered part of the college environment. 1980s: est. 20% of all college students are married. 1990s: est. 46% of all graduate students are married

3. What the Literature Tells Us Experience of graduate school can produce stress on the family Gilbert (1982). When spouse enters graduate school, this impacts the well-being of the entire family McLaughlin (1985). Graduate school is a major life event that can result in marital problems Gerstein & Russell (1990). Single most effective buffering influence was support from the student’s partner Norton, et al. (1998). Spouses who were also students scored significantly higher in marital satisfaction than did participants whose spouses were not in school (Brannock, Litten & Smith, 2000).

4. Our Research Questions Broad Question: What do we know from this data about the experience of being a married woman graduate student?  How are marriage satisfaction and co-curricular campus characteristics are related to academic performance?  How do married women graduate students differ in marriage satisfaction as opposed to married women who are not students?  Where do women graduate students in troubled marriages experience difficulty in adjusting to co- curricular campus characteristics? What do you think we’ll find??

5. Our Sample College of Education graduate students Distributed 80 packets, 52 returned (65%) Usable data: 43 research packets (54%)  6 incomplete  4 without GPA  3 outside of College of Education For this study, only interested in women’s responses

6. Our Instruments: Marital Satisfaction Inventory-R MSI-R ScaleNumber of Items Inconsistency20 Conventionalization10 Global Distress22 Affective Communication13 Problem-Solving Communication19 Aggression10 Time Together10 Disagreement About Finances11 Sexual Dissatisfaction13 Role Orientation12 Family History of Distress 9 Dissatisfaction With Children11 Conflict Over Child Rearing10

7. Our Instruments: Student Adjustment to College Questionnaire Academic Adjustment  Motivation (attitudes toward academic goals)  Application (translation of motivation to effort)  Performance (success of academic effort)  Academic Environment (satisfaction with academic environment) Personal-Emotional Adjustment  Psychological Well-Being  Physical Well-Being Attachment  General satisfaction toward being in college  This college – satisfaction with particular institution

8. Our Findings: Question 1  What marriage satisfaction and co-curricular campus characteristics are related to academic performance? Scale ConstructPearson r with GPA MSI-R Global Distress-.447* MSI-R Conflict Childrearing -.494** MSI-R Disagreement Finances-.414* MSI-R Aggression-.399* SACQ-Academic Adjustment.441* SACQ-Attachment.547** SACQ-Application.451* SACQ – Performance..618** SACQ – Physical.710**

9. Q1: In English, Please! Married students with higher level of marital distress, conflict over child rearing,conflict over finances and aggression have lower GPAs Married students with higher level of academic adjustment, attachment, application, performance, physical well- being have higher GPAs

10. Our Findings: Question 2  To what extent are married graduate students satisfied with their marriage as opposed to married women who are not students? Independent sample t test indicates 2 significant differences between these two samples:  MSI-R:Dissatisfaction with Children (t = 6.32, p <.016)  MSI-R: Conflict Over Child Rearing (t = 5.035, p <.030)

11. Q2: In English, Please! Married women students experience a significantly higher level of dissatisfaction with children than married women who are not students. Married women students experience a significantly higher level of conflict over child rearing that married women who are not students.

12. Our Findings: Question 3  Where do graduate students in troubled marriages experience difficulty in adjusting to co-curricular campus characteristics? Measure of troubled marriages is “MSR-I Global Distress” (GDS) scale – measures overall dissatisfaction with the marriage  GDS correlated with SACQ Academic Performance:  r = -.460*  GDS correlated with SACQ General Social Adjustment:  r = -.-384*  GDS correlated with SACQ Attachment This College:  r = -.-427*

13. Q3: In English, Please! If a woman graduate student is in a troubled marriage, she has a significantly higher risk of:  Lower success of academic effort  Lower level of satisfaction with social aspects of college environment  Lower affiliation toward the college she is attending

14. Conclusions Marital satisfaction and academic performance are fairly strongly related – relationship is apparent across different sub measurements of academic performance. In general, “good marriages” facilitate graduate school performance; “bad marriages” constrain graduate school performance. Bottom line: With a marriage rate of almost 50% among graduate students, these findings are both statistically and practically significant.

15. Caution: Study Limitations Sample size is small Difficulty in data collection Questionable representation: How likely are those in a troubled marriage to participate in this voluntary study?

16. Our Next Steps Explore “U Shape” curve in experience Explore differences identified by key variables (children, length of marriage, etc) Explore differences in Masters level vs. Doctoral level Explore differences in experiences between women and men graduate students.