Perceptions of social support in doctoral programs among minority students

This study examined the perceptions of social support reported by 70 Africa n-American, 44 Hispanic, 20 Native-American, and 69 Asian-American doctoral students (N = 203) concerning their experiences in graduate school. The Do ctoral Student Survey was used to measure the levels and types of social su pport provided. One-way analysis of Variance of mean scores indicated that a majority of doctoral students perceived the academic environment on campu s and faculty advisers to be strong sources of social support, while percei ving the social environment on campus as unsupportive of their progress. Th e African-American and Native-American doctoral students perceived the soci al environment on campus to be less supportive than did the Hispanic and As ian-American doctoral students, and Native-American doctoral students perce ived their departments to be less supportive than did the African-American, Hispanic, and Asian-American doctoral students.