A Pervasive, Yet Rectifiable Taboo: Addressing the Mental Health Challenges of International Doctoral Students in STEM Fields

Abstract

International students are critically important to doctoral education in the United States due to their significant contributions to teaching, scholarship, and the campus environment. Literature indicates that international doctoral students exhibit remarkable agency while transcending complex geopolitical, social, and institutional problems to successfully navigate doctoral programs (e.g., Nguyen & Robertson, 2020; Sun & Wu, 2024). Nevertheless, open discussions about international students’ mental health challenges remain taboo. The taboo nature of mental health is especially powerful in doctoral STEM environments which celebrate “grit,” resilience, and self-sufficiency while either tacitly or openly discouraging students from seeking help. This qualitative phenomenological study investigates the taboo of international doctoral students’ mental health challenges by drawing upon multiple interviews with eight international doctoral students working in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields at a U.S. research university. Data pertaining to mental health challenges point to four themes: 1) cultural isolation and displacement, 2) financial insecurity, 3) advising relationships, and 4) support networks. Analyzing data through the lens of Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory, this article then argues that institutions must consider how to address challenges on all five levels - micro, meso, exo, macro, and chrono - to better support international doctoral students