Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/330891 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Citation: 
[Journal:] Social Indicators Research [ISSN:] 1573-0921 [Volume:] 180 [Issue:] 2 [Publisher:] Springer Netherlands [Place:] Dordrecht [Year:] 2025 [Pages:] 643-673
Publisher: 
Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht
Abstract: 
While large and highly societally relevant, the group of doctoral students still plays a subordinate role in the well-being literature. To narrow this research gap, we investigate how their life satisfaction (LS) trajectories developed throughout the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany. We draw on set-point, adaptation, family, and gender theories to examine doctoral students' LS trajectories before, at the onset of, during, and after the pandemic. Thereby, we consider not only shorter-term but also longer-term consequences of the pandemic. Analysing data from the German National Academics Panel Study (Nacaps) through fixed-effects (FE) panel regression models, we find that doctoral students' LS decreased – first moderately, then substantially – in the two years after the onset of the pandemic. Thereafter, however, their LS re-approached pre-pandemic levels again. Importantly, parenthood and gender substantially moderated doctoral students' LS trajectories. Among doctoral students with children, the decline in LS at the onset of and during the Covid-19 pandemic was stronger than among childless doctoral students – especially for mothers. While childless doctoral students re-attained their pre-pandemic levels of LS after the pandemic, doctoral students with children remained below their pre-pandemic level. These results suggest that individuals strongly reacting to a critical life event might not or only slowly return to their baseline level of LS. On a broader note, our results illustrate the need to apply a long-term social inequalities perspective to fundamentally understand how well-being trajectories unfold during crises scenarios.
Subjects: 
Well-being
Life satisfaction
Covid-19 pandemic
Gender
Parenthood
Fixed-effects panel regression
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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