Running Head: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH PAPER

Qualitative Research Paper:

The Effects of Graduate School and Marriage on Students Perceptions of Quality of Life
Dani Goddard, Natalie Noss, Sam Mitchell, & Tiffany Poon
Touro University Nevada

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Introduction

For many students, graduate school serves as a rewarding and challenging experience that
helps them grow personally and professionally; however, it can also add stress to students lives
in the form of assignment deadlines, group work, complex problem solving, time management,
and high expectations. This can be especially true for students who must simultaneously balance
the requirements of graduate school with other responsibilities and roles such as work,
volunteering, home maintenance, parenting, and romantic relationships.
For this research study, we decided to focus on the impact of relationshipsspecifically,
the relationships between married partnerson the overall quality of life (QOL) and academic
performance of graduate students. We also considered the impact of graduate school on marriage
and on the students perceived QOL. Limited research has been conducted in the realm of
occupational therapy on the impact of graduate school on interpersonal relationships and QOL.
By focusing on this topic, we hope to add to the existing body of literature in the field and to
help define overall themes expressed by participants relating to QOL, relationships, and the
effects of graduate school on both.
In order to study the relationships between marriage, perceived QOL, and the
expectations of an academically-challenging graduate program, we gathered participants from
the Touro University Nevada occupational therapy class of 2015 (OT15) who met our inclusion
criteria. Inclusion required that each participant in the study had to be married and living with
his or her spouse to be included; two members of the OT15 class were excluded due to the fact
that their spouses live out of state. We utilized a semi-structured interview format of seven predetermined, open-ended questions in order to learn more about how the students measured their
own QOL, how graduate school had affected that defined QOL, whether or not their roles within

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their relationships had changed since beginning a graduate program, and how their relationships
had therefore affected graduate school performance.
Grand Tour Question and Sub-questions
The main question considered in this study was, How would occupational therapy
graduate students who are married describe their quality of life, and how has graduate school
affected that quality of life and their relationships? We also focused on sub-themes such as,
What are some of the challenges or successes of marriage while attending graduate school?
and, How does the stress of graduate school requirements affect roles within romantic
relationships? Specifically, interviews consisted of questions such as, What aspects of your
life do you feel contribute to your quality of life?, Do you feel that you have experienced an
overall increase or decrease in QOL since beginning graduate school? If so, in what ways?,
Have your roles within your relationship changed since beginning graduate school? If so, how
has this affected your perceived QOL?, and, How has being in a relationship affected your
QOL and experiences while being in graduate school?
Definitions
For purpose of this research, we defined quality of life (QOL) as: The perceived quality
of an individuals daily life; an assessment of his or her well-being or lack thereof which includes
emotional, social and physical aspects of an individuals life.
Delimitations and Limitations
Delimitations and limitations in the study included the relatively small pool of potential
participants (N=37) and the even smaller actual sample size of interviewed participants who met
the inclusion criteria (N=8; three male participants, five female). Also, participants were limited
to the school of occupational therapy at Touro University Nevada. The program is an accelerated

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medical professional program, and the experiences of participants in this specific program may
not be generalizable to other individuals in different graduate schools or programs. Limitations
also include the fact that participants were not blind to the purpose of the study and responses
were only recorded by one typing interviewer (multiple interviewers did not take notes to
compare the responses of individual participants and the interviews were not recorded digitally
or on tape). Additionally, it is difficult to objectively measure and have a standard definition of
quality of life, as it is a somewhat relative term that may have different meanings for different
individuals.
Review of Related Literature
Once we formulated our research question, we began to explore any previous research
regarding the impact on students quality of life while living with their spouse and enrolled in
higher education programs. We expected to find through researching relevant articles that marital
status would overall have a positive impact on the students QOL. Research began by exploring
the relationships between marriage and quality of life, health and well-being, and satisfaction in
graduate students. Through researching peer reviewed article databases, we found that high level
studies are lacking on the topic of QOL. We hypothesize that this is due to the ambiguity related
to measuring QOL, and thus most researchers seem to create their own QOL assessment in order
to conduct studies. These instruments, however, have limited support, and according to the
British Medical Journal, the standards regarding QOL assessments currently require more
randomized controlled trials (1998). This, in turn, creates a greater need for our qualitative study
on this topic. According to Ross and Van Willigen (1997), married persons who live with their
spouse are overall happier and healthier. This provided a starting point for us to begin

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researching further to include keywords exploring married persons who are in a graduate
program.
Relevant research found described that in fact a decrease in QOL would occur for
graduate students. Specifically, the researchers found that health related quality of life (HRQOL)
reportedly decreased for students after enrolling in a pharmacy graduate program (Gupchup,
Borrego, & Konduri, 2004). Limitations to this study include that the measurement used of
HRQOL did not have a subsection that explored personal relationships in relation to QOL.
Additionally, demographics were collected on the participants such as marital status but were not
further analyzed within the results; therefore no correlation was presented between HRQOL and
marriage for these graduate students. Gupchup et al. (2004) also indicated that it was
inconclusive whether or not the students HRQOL had any impact on their academic
performance. This prompted us to address the relationship of academic performance and
marriage to our research questions to further explore the connection, if any.
Most significantly pertinent to our topic, multiple articles were found that show that there
are benefits to participants performance in graduate school based on their marriages. It was
generally indicated that graduate school can be more enjoyable and that students academic
performance is positively influenced. Specific findings indicated that the married status was
found to be linked with faster degree completion and securing employment post-graduation for
graduate students (Wilson, 2006). Though QOL was not specifically measured according to this
review, benefits were described as indicated by the positive effects of marriage during graduate
school. The review was based on the original researchers collection of data from over 10,000
graduate students across 100 academic departments (Wilson, 2006). This large data sample
indicated that married male graduate students were 75% more likely than the single male

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graduate students to complete their degrees faster; married women were 25% more likely to
complete their programs as compared to unwed peers (Wilson, 2006). A cross-sectional and
longitudinal study regarding the psychological distress of undergraduate college students in
Norway found similar promising results. Mastekaasa (2006), found that female students who
were cohabiting or living with a spouse showed lower levels of distress compared to the female
students who were living alone or with parents. Male students presented varying levels of
distress depending on age. Male students who cohabited or lived with a spouse and were under
23 years of age displayed higher levels of distress than those age 23 and older (Mastekaasa,
2006). The older group of male students showed low distress levels similar to the female
cohabiting/married students. A narrative study in which one married couple discussed their
experiences described that their marriage had benefits on the overall experience of graduate
school. The study showed that the stresses of graduate school were lessened by the fact that the
participant was able to share the experience with his wife. He specifically indicated that marriage
had been complementary to graduate school and that it allowed for time to recharge emotionally
while the demands of school were constantly present (Labosier & Labosier, 2011). This
methodological approach is the most complementary to our planned research method since
personal experiences were explored; however our research is not narrative in design. The study
conducted by Mastekaasa was also very promising to find as the research design included
variables regarding marital status and living situations which are pertinent to our research
questions.
Procedures
We decided to use a phenomenological method to perform our qualitative research for
this study. As occupational therapy graduate students at Touro University Nevada, we determined

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our focus for this study was to understand the essence of married graduate students and their
quality of life during school. We utilized a convenience sample of eight students who were
married and living with their spouses. Interviewing provides an opportunity to collect data on an
individuals experience, thus, we conducted semi-structured interviews with the participants at
Touro University Nevada. We obtained consent from each participant prior to the interview.
Also, we communicated to each participant that their names and personal information would not
be released in the study. Lastly, we assured each participant that the intended use of the data
provided would be solely for research purposes.
We determined that interviewing would provide us with highly personalized responses
and overarching themes to determine the effects of cohabitation on quality of life for
occupational therapy graduate students at Touro University Nevada. The participants were asked
seven open-ended questions pertaining to their quality of life prior to and during graduate school.
The open-ended questions also included topics that touched on participants relationships with a
spouse or children, if they had an overall increase or decrease in quality of life, if they
experienced any role changes, and if they felt their performance in graduate school had been
affected by being married. We chose to use open-ended questions with some cuing from the
interviewer to guide the participants responses (i.e. providing a generalized definition of quality
of life, if needed for clarification). One researcher interviewed the participant, while another
researcher typed the response verbatim.
To systematically uncover the experiences of cohabitating graduate students, we
compiled all the transcripts from the interviews and then identified areas of data and keywords
that related to the research question. Furthermore, we searched for similar themes and patterns
from each transcript. To easily organize the different themes, we color coded words that were

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related to each other. Once the themes were determined, we decided to choose the four main
themes that were most prevalent in our findings. Due to the small sample size, the divergence of
responses was limited. The participants that reported inconsistently from the themes expressed
that their life situations differed from the majority of the other participants which yielded a
different perspective.
To enhance internal validity, we used two types of triangulation. The first type was
investigator triangulation, which involves the use of multiple researchers perspectives to
interpret a set of data. The findings from each researcher were then compared to develop an
understanding of how we individually viewed the data. We determined that we all arrived at the
same conclusion of our themes. The second type of triangulation we used was member checking.
After we developed themes, we contacted the participants to confirm our findings. Since all
participants agreed with the themes, the confidence of the study was therefore heightened.
Our research study holds unique findings pertaining to cohabitation during occupational
therapy graduate school at Touro University Nevada. The study only included married couples
rather than unmarried couples cohabiting. The participants interviewed varied in their years of
marriage providing us with broad perspectives. Our research study may be replicated in different
programs of graduate school. Factors such as length of program, difficulty of schoolwork, and
availability of resources may all yield different results. A study including unmarried couples in
graduate school cohabiting may also yield different results. After analyzing our data, we
determined several themes.
Findings
After we defined the universal definition for QOL, we proceeded to ask each individual
to describe what aspects of their life contribute to their quality of life based on the definition.

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Most participants indicated that maintaining meaningful personal relationships was the most
important indicator of how they measured their QOL. One participant responded saying:
Maintaining my meaningful relationships and my health [is important to me]. The
number one aspect that contributes to my QOL is maintaining my relationship with my
spouse... Happy wife, happy life. Also, finances are important. And school contributes
as well, mainly [to] my performance and grades which is the sole purpose of school. As
long as I do well in school, I think it will contribute to my quality of life.
After determining each individual's definition of quality of life, we then asked them how their
quality of life had been affected by attending graduate school. Several major themes were
uncovered upon reviewing each participants transcripts.
One major theme stated in most, if not all, of the transcripts was an overall decrease in
quality of life after beginning the occupational therapy graduate program. One participant stated:
[My overall QOL has] decreased; personal time for me is limited [for activities] such as
grooming and thinking about my appearance. Also, my personal time being able to sit and
read a book for pleasure or watch a movie without feeling guilty [has decreased]. I even
feel guilty sometimes hanging out with friends outside of school.
This statement clearly summarizes many of our participants views of their QOL after beginning
graduate school. We also asked the participants how they viewed their QOL prior to graduate
school. The majority of the participants stated their QOL prior to beginning school was better
due to having more free time, feeling less stress, and being more financially stable in their life.
One participant stated that, [My quality of life] was better before graduate school. I had more
time to spend on maintaining relationships, I could go to the gym daily, and I had better finances
because I had job.

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Although there was a clear theme of an overall decrease in QOL, several participants
expressed that even with an overall decrease, there were some increases in specific areas such as
relationships or personal goal achievement. One female participant stated, I think I have a
partial increase in QOL because I appreciate the time [I have] in my relationship. But I feel an
overall decrease because I have less time, less money. Another participant stated, I feel an
increase [because I am] personally achieving goals and continuing my education which is
important to me. Although most participants stated an overall decrease in QOL, the aspects of
goal attainment and an increased appreciation of their relationships contributed to making their
experience in graduate school manageable.
Of the eight participants interviewed, two participants expressed that they felt an overall
increase in their QOL since beginning graduate school. One of the participants stated:
I have experienced an increase in QOL, because before grad school I was working a
stressful job. I see school as a better stress with a light at the end of the tunnel I am
working for something. I also love occupational therapy and love learning about it.
Another participant indicated an increased QOL in graduate school due to experiencing marital
problems before beginning school. From these two participants, we determined that they had
poor QOL prior to graduate school but being enrolled in an academic program that they are
passionate about has increased their perception of QOL.
Another common theme found was that a majority of the participants experienced role
changes due to attending graduate school. Many of the participants reported that their perceived
QOL had also been affected due to role changes partially because of higher reliance on their
significant other to fulfill both partners roles. One participant stated, Yes, my wife for the first
time makes more than me; its not a male/female thing, but I feel like I need to take care of her

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I feel bad putting pressure for paying bills and caretaking for our daughter on my wife. Another
participant stated:
Yes, my husband does all the laundry because hes a rock star; he cleans the house and
takes good care of me. In some ways it is really good because I dont have to do laundry.
But then I feel bad because Im not helping. He works all day and I go to school; why
does mine trump his? Its because my [commitment] continues into the night.
Role changes have affected most participants QOL, because attending graduate school is timeconsuming and overtakes most aspects of daily life. Some participants roles before graduate
school included being a homemaker, caretaker, or main provider, but since beginning the tedious
life of graduate school, these roles have dramatically changed for these participants.
One theme observed among all participants is the emphasis placed on the moral support
from their spouses. All participants expressed that the main reason for their success in graduate
school is due to their spousal support, which in return produces a greater QOL in the end. One
participant said, If I was not married, I would not be in grad school. My wife is my motivation
to do good. We found that the participants spouses inspired them to work harder to achieve the
end goal of a degree because both partners in the end will be rewarded with a better QOL.
Another participant expressed, What motivates me is knowing when I have a degree, I will not
have to worry about finances and I will be able to support my wife as she supports me now. The
participants all agreed that without the motivation from their spouses they would not perform as
well as they do in school or achieve the grades that they do.
By interviewing these eight participants, we determined that respondents experienced
both an overall decrease in QOL and significant role changes within their relationships. We also
found positive themes such as goal attainment, an increased appreciation of personal

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relationships, and greater academic performance due to spousal support. The themes presented
show that the current married OT15 students at Touro University Nevada have experienced an
overall decrease in QOL since beginning graduate school due to the stresses associated with
formal higher education. However, participants also indicated that overall they have the support
systems and means they need to achieve their ultimate educational goals and increase their QOL
in the future.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Overall themes in our study showed that married students in the occupational therapy
class of 2015 at Touro University Nevada have experienced an overall decrease in their quality of
life in graduate school secondary to increased responsibilities and stressors and decreased free
time to spend with spouses, family, and friends. However, participants also indicated resiliency
and appreciation of the support offered by their spouses as well as an increased desire to succeed
in order to provide for their partners and families in the future. They indicated overall that the
encouragement and support they derive from their marriages helps them cope with the stress of
graduate school and their own changing roles in their romantic relationships. Study findings
could be used to help incoming graduate students understand the potential challenges to and
supports of marriage during graduate school and help them communicate with their partners
regarding role changes in their relationships.
Due to the limited sample size of available participants, additional studies should be
conducted in order to further research related to quality of life, graduate school, and higher
educations effects on relationships and personal life satisfaction. These studies should use larger
sample sizes from more diverse educational programs in order to test the generalizability of our
findings. It would also be beneficial to compare standards of life satisfaction and quality of life

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between the genders or between students who are married, those who are cohabiting with a
romantic partner, and those who are single (and living with or without roommates). Due to the
potentially abstract and subjective nature of defining quality of life, it may also be wise to utilize
a standard assessment of overall life satisfaction in future studies. By adding to the existing body
of knowledge in the field, our study and others like it can indicate effects of romantic
relationships on other areas of occupation, such as formal education, and can help professionals
learn how to better support positive outcomes for clients.

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References

British Medical Journal. (1998). Quality of life is rarely and poorly measured in randomized
controlled trials. British Medical Journal, 317, (7167).
Gupchup, G., Borrego, M., & Konduri, N. (2004). The impact of student life stress on health
related quality of life among doctor of pharmacy students. College Student Journal,
38, (2), 292-301.
Labosier, C., & Labosier, A. (2011). Who are you married to? Balancing graduate school and
marriage. Geographical Bulletin, 52, 87-91.
Mastekaasa, A. (2006). Is marriage/cohabitation beneficial for young people? Some evidence
on psychological distress among Norwegian college students. Journal of Community
and Applied Social Psychology, 16, 149-165.
Ross, C., & Van Willigen, M. (1997). Education and the subjective quality of life Journal of
Health and Social Behavior, 38, (3), 275-297. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2955371?
uid=3739256&uid=2&uid=4&sid=211 03275709911.
Wilson, R. (2006). Tying the knot helps students, especially men, succeed in graduate school.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, 53, (13).

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Appendix
Interview Questions

State at the beginning at the interview:

For purposes of this interview, we will define quality of life as: the perceived quality of
an individuals daily life; an assessment of their well-being or lack thereof which includes
emotional, social and physical aspects of an individuals life.
Questions:
1. What aspects of your life do you feel contribute to your quality of life?
1. (for example, maintaining my meaningful relationships and my health)
b. How did you perceive your overall QOL prior to attending grad school?
c. Do you feel that you have experienced an overall increase or decrease in QOL since
beginning graduate school? If so, in what ways?
d. Have your roles within your relationship changed since beginning graduate school? If so,
how has this affected your perceived QOL?
e. How has being in a relationship affected your QOL and experiences while being in grad
school?
f. How do you believe that grad school, in return, has affected your personal relationships?
g. Do you believe your grades/academic performance would be different if you were not
married and cohabiting? If so, how?