Engineering Education Department, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA.
Engineering Education Systems & Design Department, Arizona State University, Mesa, AZ 85212, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Dec 5;19(23):16284. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192316284.
Engineering education is perceived to be a tough field of study with detrimental effects on the mental health of undergraduate engineering students. High levels of anxiety and depression are reported among this population. Overall, mental health research is often biased toward looking at mental health from a deficit perspective and investigating mental health as a negative phenomenon. This trend also persists in engineering education research. The purpose of this exploratory study, therefore, is to investigate the condition of subjective wellbeing (SWB) of undergraduate engineering students to understand the factors that they perceive as positively contributing to their overall wellbeing in an engineering college environment. Qualitative data from eight undergraduate engineering students interviewed in fall 2021 in the college of engineering at a land grant public institution in the western USA were thematically analyzed. The resulting 11 themes were then re-grouped and conceptualized into 7 factors (faculty support, learning experiences, support environment, financial support, engineering practice opportunities, task organization, and task orientation) for clear mapping, understanding, and explanation. The outcomes from this research have positive implications for the SWB of undergraduate engineering students, with support from their educational institutions.
工程教育被认为是一个艰难的学习领域，对本科工科学生的心理健康有不利影响。这一人群报告了高水平的焦虑和抑郁。总的来说，心理健康研究往往偏向于从缺陷的角度看待心理健康，并将心理健康视为一种负面现象。这一趋势在工程教育研究中也一直存在。因此，这项探索性研究的目的是调查本科工科学生的主观幸福感（SWB）状况，以了解他们认为在工程学院环境中对整体幸福感有积极贡献的因素。2021 年秋季，在美国西部一所赠地公立大学的工程学院，对 8 名本科工科学生进行了访谈，从中提取了定性数据，并进行了主题分析。随后，将得到的 11 个主题重新分组，并概念化为 7 个因素（教师支持、学习经历、支持环境、经济支持、工程实践机会、任务组织和任务导向），以便清晰地映射、理解和解释。这项研究的结果对本科工科学生的主观幸福感有积极影响，他们的教育机构为此提供了支持。
