Pot, Pinterest, and Pokémon: The Escapist Lives of Doctoral Students

Doctoral education in the United States harbors significant stressors and pressures for students, arising from the market-driven, competitive environment of research universities. Drawing on theories of leisure with a central focus on seeking and escaping activities, our qualitative description study involving 55 doctoral students at a striving research university in the United States explores the ways in which doctoral students from various fields of study engage in a variety of leisure activities to escape the stresses of graduate school. The majority of participants described their engagement in seeking and escaping activities as joyful and satisfactory approaches to dealing with the pressures they experienced during their doctoral studies. We describe a typology of six seeking and escaping activities in which doctoral students engage, including 1) interstitial joy, 2) unconscious immersion, 3) transportive pleasure, 4) proximal gratification, 5) outlets of empowerment, and 6) socialization and relatedness. We also offer recommendations for graduate programs, faculty, and universities to promote the well-being of doctoral students in relation to leisure activities.