Intersection of family, work and leisure during academic training

Parents enrolled in graduate programs and their experiences with faculty

“…Parenting and academia are both described as "greedy institutions" (Coser, 1974), meaning they demand essentially endless time and energy from those who partake in them (Chesser, 2015;Correll, Benard, & Paik, 2007;Moreau & Kerner, 2015;Raddon, 2002;Springer, Parker, & Leviten-Reid, 2009). Existing literature consistently highlights the tendency of both of these positions to expect ambiguous but intense amounts of involvement (Chesser, 2015;Correll et al, 2007;Moreau & Kerner, 2015;Raddon, 2002;Springer et al, 2009). Parents in academia experience benefits and difficulties specific to their positions at the intersection of these roles (Estes, 2011;Moreau & Kerner, 2015;Raddon, 2002;Trussell, 2015).…”

“…Students who are parents need to attend not only to endless graduate program requirements but also to the daily needs of their children. I posit that because they assume multiple demanding roles (Chesser, 2015;Crabb & Ekberg, 2014;Douglas & Michaels, 2004;Hays, 1996), graduate students with children may experience more intensified difficulties with stress, finances, and struggles unique to their intersecting identities, as compared to graduate students who are not parents (Grady et al, 2014). However, parenthood and graduate school may also provide benefits to graduate student parents in that these roles may buffer the stress of one another (Wolf-Wendel & Ward, 2006) and allow students to gain new insights into parenting (Estes, 2011), research (Dillon, 2012), teaching, and service.…”

“…Prior studies of graduate students who are parents have considered the lives of this population through a lens of role conflict (Lynch, 2008;Myers-Walls, Frias, Kwon, Ko, & Lu, 2011;Sallee, 2015;Springer et al, 2009) and have occasionally referenced the ways that these Role Conflict Role Enhancement roles positively influence one another (Chesser, 2015), but no known research has examined these students' experiences from the framework provided by Tiedje and colleagues (1990). The current study seeks to fill this gap by exploring how both role strain and role enhancement are experienced simultaneously for graduate student parents.…”

“…Graduate student parents: Individuals who are enrolled in graduate programs while simultaneously raising children (Myers-Walls et al, 2011;Sallee, 2015;Springer et al, 2009) Greedy institutions: Institutions, such as the family and academia, that seek undivided and exclusive attention and commitment from those who take part in them (Coser, 1974) Ideal worker/student: A societal or institutional expectation that refers to employees or students as ideal only if they work more than 40 hours per week and display undivided commitment, accessibility, and loyalty to the job (Chesser, 2015;Crabb & Ekberg, 2014) Intensive parenting: Complete devotion of oneself to the tasks of parenting, such as teaching, entertaining, responding to varying developmental needs at different stages, providing for and socializing children during all waking hours. The term "intensive mothering" has been used in prior literature (Douglas & Michaels, 2004;Hays, 1996); however, for the purposes of this study, the concept refers to all parents.…”

“…Similarly, Western culture has defined ideal parents as "intensely" involved in their children's daily lives, committed to them above all else (Hays, 1996). Graduate students and faculty members who are parents may experience tension as they navigate through expectations of acting as "ideal workers" and "intensive parents" simultaneously (Chesser, 2015;Raddon, 2002;Springer et al, 2009).…”