Witnessing “De-Socialization”: Investigating unexpected longitudinal trends in engineering doctoral socialization

Background: Graduate-level education is gaining attention in engineering education scholarship. While “socialization” is a key term in doctoral literature, little is known about how socialization occurs over time. One common assumption asserts that socialization increases over time, encompassing factors such as belongingness, research ability, and advisor relationship as students acclimate to the norms and values of their advisors, departments, universities, and disciplines. We investigate engineering doctoral student socialization trends: students likely to complete their degrees and those who have questioned whether to persist in their programs. Understanding these trends is essential, as many students consider leaving their programs. Purpose/Hypothesis: This paper aims to understand how socialization processes occur over several years in engineering students who questioned leaving their PhD programs. Design/Method: We present longitudinal survey data collected from two cohorts (N_A = 113 and N_B = 355) of engineering doctoral students at R1 universities in the United States. Data were collected over 2 years through SMS surveys with participants receiving text messages three times per week. We analyzed data using descriptive and time series analysis methods. Results: Both cohorts showed lower levels of belongingness over time, reported declining advisor relationships, and experienced higher levels of stress. Students later in their programs also reported deteriorating overall social relationships. These findings contradict canonical socialization theory, which expects socialization to naturally improve over time. Conclusion: While many assume socialization occurs passively and students acculturate into their department and research team over time, our results show students who question whether to persist are de-socializing from graduate school.