“I Am My Family’s Caregiver and Social Worker”: Experiences of Doctoral Student Moms During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Doctoral student mothers faced unique challenges navigating school, work, and parenting responsibilities throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The pressure to keep up with academic benchmarks and productivity standards, alongside social isolation and disruptions to caregiving supports, can impact parenting students’ well-being and progression through a doctoral program. This exploratory study examined doctoral student moms’ (N = 87) perceptions of their roles, challenges, and sources of relational support during the pandemic. An electronic survey was distributed to doctoral students enrolled in U.S. member institutions of the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work (GADE) during November and December 2020. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyze open-ended responses about parenting experiences, changes to doctoral work and degree progress, sources of instrumental and emotional support, and peer and mentor relationships. Shame resilience theory was used as a guiding framework through which findings were interpreted. Findings revealed challenges related to role-juggling, feeling emotionally and physically overwhelmed, struggles with professional advancement, social isolation, and disrupted supports. Relational supports were offered primarily by partners and/or household family, friends and extended family, doctoral student peers, and doctoral advisors/mentors. Implications for doctoral programs are discussed. A series of programmatic, structural, and policy recommendations are offered, which are designed to increase maternal visibility in doctoral programs and build a more robust and systematic approach to academic parenting support.