Adjustment of Graduate Students to the Educational Process

Abstract

Although empirical evidence suggests that part-time and full-time graduate programs in social work are equivalent with respect to various academic outcomes, little is known about the effects of enrollment status on students’ psychological adjustment to the educational process. The effects of extracurricular role enactment similarly are unclear. The author surveyed graduate students at a large state university and found that, among those students, enrollment status, the total number of roles enacted, and the interaction between these variables had no effects on psychological adjustment scores. However, students who were both enrolled full-time and employed full-time had lower levels of adjustment than did other students. Among part-time female students, the extracurricular role of marriage was associated with lower adjustment. The author discusses the study results in light of the scarcity and expansion hypotheses, as derived from role theory. Practical implications for social work graduate education are provided.