Survey of Doctoral Students on Career, Family, and Life Plans

All of your responses will be kept strictly confidential. You may withdraw from the survey at any time, or skip any questions that you do not wish to answer.

You may, at any time, save your responses (by clicking one of the save buttons).

When you have finished the survey, please click the submit button (located at the very end of the survey).

A. Educational Status and Demography

Which of the following describes most closely the field of your current doctoral degree program (e.g. Mathematics)?

If "other," please specify.

2.	For each of the following educational events** (if applicable), please select the month from the dropdown list and type in the year that the event occurred.**

Educational events	Month of event?	Year of event? (e.g. 1999)
Date you were awarded your most recent Bachelor's degree (or equivalent degree)
Date you first enrolled in your current doctoral degree program
Date you advanced to candidacy in your current doctoral degree program (if relevant)
Date you anticipate completing your current doctoral degree program

3.	Overall, how satisfied are you with each of the following?

		Very satisfied	Somewhat satisfied	Not too satisfied	Not at all satisfied	Not applicable
a.	Quality of your degree program
b.	Interaction with faculty
c.	Interaction with primary faculty advisor
d.	Interaction with fellow doctoral students
e.	Personal progress toward doctoral degree
f.	Personal progress toward career goals
g.	Departmental/unit support for career-life balance
h.	Time for self (e.g. recreation, relaxation, health)
i.	Family situation with spouse/partner (if any)
j.	Family situation with children (if any)
k.	Overall career and life situation
l.	Other, please specify

4.	In the past year, what is the average number of hours per week you have spent on each of the following activities? There are 168 hours in a week -- rough estimates are fine.

	Weekly Activities	Average hours per week?
a.	Education degree program (e.g. researching and writing papers for courses, attending classes, studying for prelims, working on dissertation, conducting experiments as part of your degree program, writing articles for publication)
b.	Employment (e.g. teaching, research assistantship, other paid work)
c.	Housework and home maintenance ( e.g. shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry, paying bills)
d.	Caregiving (e.g. meeting the needs of young children, teenagers, spouse/partner, elders, friends, other family members)

5.	What is your gender?

		Male
		Female

6.	How would you describe your sexual orientation?

		Heterosexual
		Gay, Lesbian
		Bisexual
		Other, please specify

7.	How would you describe your race or ethnicity? Check all that apply.

		White
		Black or African American
		Mexican American
		Hispanic or Latino/a
		Asian American or Pacific Islander
		American Indian or Alaskan Native
		Other, please specify

8.	What is your current citizenship status?

		U.S. Citizen
		Permanent Resident
		Non-Resident

9.	What month and year were you born?

Birth month?	Birth year? (e.g. 1986))

If you would like to save your work, please click the save button now.

B. Life/Family Situation and Plans

10.

What is your current marital or relationship status?

		Married
		Partnered
		Widowed
		Divorced/Separated
		Never Married/Partnered

If you marked "never married/partnered," please click here to skip to question 14.

11.

For each of the following life events, please select the month from the dropdown list and type in the year that the event occurred.

Life events	Month of event?	Year of event? (e.g. 1981)
Date most recently married/partnered
Date most recently divorced/separated from a spouse/partner (if applicable)

If you marked "widowed" or "divorced/separated" in response to question 10, please click here to skip to question 14.

12.

What is your spouse/partner's current employment/educational status? Check all that apply.

		Employed full time
		Employed part time
		Unemployed
		Enrolled as a doctoral student
		Enrolled as a professional or master's degree student
		Enrolled as an undegraduate
		Other, please specify

13.

Which of the following best describes your spouse/partner's current occupation (if currently employed) or longer-term career goal (if enrolled in a degree program)?

If you marked "other" please specify.

14.

As an adult, have you ever had substantial responsibility for raising one or more children under age 18?

		Yes
		No

If you answered "No" to Question 14, please click here to skip to Question 16.

15.

For each child for whom you have had substantial responsibility for parenting, please specify the month and year of the child's birth or adoption/foster placement with you. For stepchildren, please specify the month and year when your parenting responsibilities began. (If you have parented more than four children, please enter information for the four youngest children only.)

Birth/arrival events	Month of event?	Year of event? (e.g. 1981)	Relationship of child to you¹
Date of birth/arrival of youngest child
Date of birth/arrival of 2nd youngest child (if applicable)
Date of birth/arrival of 3rd youngest child (if applicable)
Date of birth/arrival of 4th youngest child (if applicable)

¹If you marked "other" relationship of child to you, please describe the relationship(s) here:

16.

Whether or not you currently have children, do you expect to have or adopt (any or more) children in the future?

		Yes
		No
		Uncertain or don't know

If you do not expect to have or adopt any (more) children in the future or are uncertain, please click here to skip to Question 22.

17.

If you answered "Yes" to Question 16, how many (more) children do you expect to have or adopt (if you currently have children, please do not count them in this number)?

		One
		Two
		Three
		Four
		Five or more

18.

Given your current educational, career, and life situation and desire to have or adopt one or more children in the future, when do you think is the optimal time to start?

Less than 1 year from now	5 to 6 years from now	14 to 16 years from now
1 to 2 years from now	6 to 8 years from now	16 to 20 years from now
2 to 3 years from now	8 to 10 years from now	20 or more years from now
3 to 4 years from now	10 to 12 years from now
4 to 5 years from now	12 to 14 years from now

19.

Would you consider having or adopting any (more) children as a doctoral student?

		No
		Yes, but I am not certain that I will
		Yes, and I am certain that I will

If you are certain you will have or adopt any (more) children as a doctoral student, please click here to skip to Question 23.

20.

If you have doubts about, or would not consider having or adopting, any (more) children as a doctoral student, how important are each of the following factors in your decision?

		Very important	Somewhat important	Not too important	Not at all important	Not applicable
a.	Uncertain current employment situation
b.	Uncertain future employment situation
c.	Current time demands of degree program/employment
d.	Anticipated time demands of future degree program/career
e.	Current level of personal/household income
f.	Anticipated future level of personal/household income
g.	Concerns regarding degree progress
h.	Concerns regarding future career advancement/success
i.	Concerns that your degree program and caregiving responsibilities are incompatible
j.	Concerns that my advisor would take my work less seriously or think I lack commitment
k.	Concerns that other faculty/scholars would take my work less seriously or think I lack commitment
l.	Concerns that peers/colleagues would take my work less seriously or think I lack commitment
m.	Concerns that future potential employers might take my work less seriously or think I lack commitment

		Very important	Somewhat important	Not too important	Not at all important	Not applicable
n.	Time for leisure or social activities
o.	Concerns about affordability/availability of quality child care/schooling
p.	Concerns about affordability/availability of quality housing
q.	Concerns about affordability/availability of health insurance for dependents
r.	Concerns about availability of pregnancy leave and/or health insurance during pregnancy
s.	Current spouse/partner does not want a(nother) child at this time (if currently married/partnered)
t.	Effects of a(nother) child on my marriage/relationship (if currently married/partnered)
u.	Uncertainty about future spouse/partner (if not currently married/partnered)
v.	Medical or health reasons (including age)
w.	Stress and worry of raising children as a doctoral student
x.	Limited interest in becoming a parent as a doctoral student
y.	Other, please specify