Mareike Rußmann

We find that study resources and private resources (especially personal resources such as high self-efficacy) are substantially negatively correlated with the student burnout risk. While the burnout risk differs only slightly by social background, it is notably higher among women than among men, primarily because women consider their study demands to be higher and their personal resources to be lower. Overall, our study illustrates that social groups differ in terms of perceived study demands and resources—and therefore require tailored support to reduce the risk of burnout.

While large and highly societally relevant, the group of doctoral students still plays a subordinate role in the well-being literature. To narrow this research gap, we investigate how their life satisfaction (LS) trajectories developed throughout the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany. We draw on set-point, adaptation, family, and gender theories to examine doctoral students’ LS trajectories before, at the onset of, during, and after the pandemic. Thereby, we consider not only shorter-term but also longer-term consequences of the pandemic.

We examine the mechanisms explaining the dropout intentions of students with disabilities by integrating Tinto’s model of student integration, the student attrition model, the composite persistence model, and insights from social stratification research. Overall, our results highlight the importance of considering both students’ integration into higher education and their private resources for understanding student-group-specific dropout intent.

Studierende mit Beeinträchtigung stehen im Studium oft vor besonderen Herausforderungen. Im Zuge der Corona-Pandemie haben sich ihre Studienbedingungen nochmals erschwert. Welche Auswirkungen hatte das auf das Abbruchrisiko dieser Studierendengruppe?