University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 8-2020 Examining teaching and research anxieties, self-efficacy, and coping in Biology Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs): a snapshot of graduate student mental health Miranda Mann Lin Chen Musgrove University of Tennessee Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Recommended Citation Musgrove, Miranda Mann Lin Chen, "Examining teaching and research anxieties, self-efficacy, and coping in Biology Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs): a snapshot of graduate student mental health " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2020 https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/6793 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange For more information, please contact trace@utk.edu To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Miranda Mann Lin Chen Musgrove entitled "Examining teaching and research anxieties, self-efficacy, and coping in Biology Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs): a snapshot of graduate student mental health." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Elisabeth Ellen Schussler, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Randall Small, Kimberly Sheldon, Erin Hardin Accepted for the Council: Dixie L Thompson Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official student records.) Examining teaching and research anxieties, self-efficacy, and coping in Biology Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs): a snapshot of graduate student mental health A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Miranda Maan Lin Chen Musgrove August 2020 Copyright © 2020 by Miranda Maan Lin Chen Musgrove All rights reserved ii DEDICATION For the Glory of God “I have been crucified with Christ, and the life I live now is not my own; Christ is living in me.” Galatians 2:19 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I stand on the shoulders of giants This work would not be possible if not for the prayers, advocacy, and love from those around me In thanksgiving to the Lord, the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit To the intercession of His Blessed Mother and St Joseph All the Angels and Saints of God who have been praying for me—from moving from Toronto to Knoxville, to all the relationships forged, and all the conferences and writing Christ and the Communion of Saints have been with me every step of the way In thanksgiving for my sweet husband of months, Matthew—for putting up with my workaholic tendencies, for doing the dishes when I am under a deadline, for praying for me all the days of my life Our little boy will have a great role model for life In thanksgiving for my family near and far To the Chens, especially Mom, Dad, Kenrick, Cheryl, Lathieeshe, and my two beautiful goddaughters—for their many drives down from Toronto to help me move to and within Knoxville, countless virtual hugs and kisses, and prayers lifted up for me To the Musgroves, my other Mom and Dad, Diann and David, Dimple, Adam, Ashley and the kiddos—for their regular check-ins, delicious southern cooking, and many prayers too In thanksgiving for my Church Family from St John XXIII, Holy Ghost, Immaculate Conception, and the Diocese of Knoxville faith community broadly Especially those from the St John XXIII Bible Study! You’ve been with me from the moment I stepped foot in town and will see me through this defense and further to the birth of my son Thank you for your many, many prayers And to my dearest Sisters in Christ from Toronto (Allie and Froila) and Knoxville (Andra, Paola, Marcia, Paula) Our iv fellowship goes deeper than blood—we are united in Spirit, through the Body of Christ Thank you for literally hours of voice note messages, tears, laughs, hugs, kisses, and prayers Always prayers In thanksgiving for my mentors, especially Beth, my BIGGEST advocate at UT Beth has read (and cut down) so many manuscript pages and presentation slides, and lifted me up as an academic and person I am humbled to call her my mentor and advocate If I could take Beth with me to every subsequent job, I would She is the ideal mentor and I am proud to be her student To my doctoral committee, Drs Erin Hardin, Randall Small, and Kimberly Sheldon for their invaluable advice on these projects and manuscripts throughout the last 4.5 years—it’s been a blast! To NISER, especially Drs Lou Gross, Pam Bishop, and Sondra LoRe, for giving me the opportunity to learn about Program Evaluation during my doctorate For those who have helped to open my mind to the opportunities outside of my own country, especially Dr Tamara Kelly I wouldn’t be in the United States now if it were not for such encouragement To those in the Division of Biology—Randy B., Stephanie, Crystal, Jeremy, Ben, Sarah, Brittany, and Hannah—for making teaching during the program fun and a great experience! These people are only some of my mentors and advocates to which I owe this doctorate In thanksgiving for my friends and colleagues To my lab mates, Dr Caroline Wienhold, Dr Ben England, Margaurete Romero, and Maryrose Weatherton for reading and revising innumerable manuscript and presentation versions I will always try to squeeze in a joke slide! To my EEB and graduate student community, especially those in my cohort with whom I had the pleasure of journeying through graduate school with: Lucas, Harmony, Athma, Moon, Chad, Chloe, Angela, Jordan, Orlando, Diane, Jess, v Jayne To our excellent EEB administrators, Lisa, Janice, Marva, and Karin, for processing my many travel, funding, and visa documents To my virtual QUBES journal club friends—Drs Sarah Andrews, Robert Furrow, Nicole Chodkowski, Brie Tripp, Laurel Lorenz, Amy Kulesza—for sharing in quantitative confusion, laughs, and just regular points of virtual contact for sanity To the SABER DBER-SiT (Discipline-based Education Research Scholars-in-Training) Committee which I have had the honor to serve alongside my fellow co-chairs to build up our graduate student and post-doc community And of course, in thanksgiving for all my Biology GTA participants, to which I cannot name here, but you know who you are Thank you for sharing hours of your time with me via surveys and interviews This work could not have been done without you vi ABSTRACT Graduate students report increasing levels of anxiety and depression compared to the general public, negatively impacting their overall mental health and degree attainment in graduate programs Yet we are only beginning to understand what contributes to graduate student anxiety Biology Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) in particular occupy an “ambiguous niche” in academia with simultaneous roles as teachers, researchers, students, and employees Balancing these roles can contribute to anxieties, particularly in regard to teaching and research responsibilities My dissertation investigated Biology GTA anxieties related to teaching and research roles, how these anxieties change over time, how GTAs cope with these emotions, and how career aspirations relate to these anxieties I surveyed (n=89) and interviewed (n=23) Biology GTAs at a research-intensive university twice over one year Results revealed that a GTA’s teaching self-efficacy is an important predictor of teaching anxiety, with greater self-efficacy related to decreased anxiety Interviews revealed that five factors were associated with teaching and research anxieties, but in different proportions for each role Anxiety related to a lack of self-efficacy was most common for research roles; while anxiety related to impact on others (e.g students) was more prevalent in teaching roles Anxieties related to role tensions or time constraints between teaching and research also arose, though GTAs with academic career aspirations expressed these anxieties less compared to GTAs with non-academic career goals Lastly, when examining how GTAs coped with teaching and research anxieties, GTAs overall tended to use adaptive coping strategies, despite differences between roles Problem solving and information seeking were used in both teaching and research contexts; but support vii seeking strategies were used more often in research Over time, the use of these adaptive coping strategies declined among GTAs, however, maladaptive strategies did not notably increase This may indicate a stabilization of coping strategies over time Given the important roles that GTAs play as instructors in introductory Biology and in the production of research at research-intensive institutions, it is important to understand how GTAs are experiencing anxieties related to teaching and research roles in order to better support their mental health through institutional resources to manage such stressors viii ... (Original signatures are on file with official student records.) Examining teaching and research anxieties, self-efficacy, and coping in Biology Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs): a snapshot of graduate. .. degree attainment in graduate programs Yet we are only beginning to understand what contributes to graduate student anxiety Biology Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) in particular occupy an “ambiguous... Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Miranda Mann Lin Chen Musgrove entitled "Examining teaching and research anxieties, self-efficacy, and coping in Biology Graduate