Historical Perspective on Married Students

1. Women Graduate Students: Balancing Graduate Studies and Marital RelationshipsJoshua GoldMichelle MaherAndrea ChenCollege of EducationUniversity of South CarolinaFebruary 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 problemsGerstein & 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 Scale Number of Items Inconsistency 20 Conventionalization 10 Global Distress 22 Affective Communication 13 Problem-Solving Communication 19 Aggression 10 Time Together 10 Disagreement About Finances 11 Sexual Dissatisfaction 13 Role Orientation 12 Family History of Distress 9 Dissatisfaction With Children 11 Conflict Over Child Rearing 10

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 Construct Pearson 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.