Research in higher education acknowledges academic performance, progress and general health as adversely impacted by mental health challenges. These challenges are consistent with numerous life changes that accompany the student experience, including changes related to work, finances, social interactions and living conditions. Current scholarship focuses on epidemiological descriptions of psychological disorder, academic outcomes as related to experiences of stress, and help-seeking behavior/service-utilization amongst student populations. This project contributes to the understudied area of graduate student mental health by highlighting the importance of students' "social locations". Specifically, this project utilizes the stress process model to underscore how institutional contexts influence mental health outcomes and experiences, illuminating how structural, social and academic department cultures create differential risk for graduate students' mental health. Using the stress process model and a mixed methods approach, I address the following questions: - Does graduate students' psychological distress vary by division? If so, how much is explained by department characteristics (i.e. mentorship/advising, department climate and funding structure) and by stressors/resources (e.g. role overload, role conflict, isolation, funding uncertainty)? - Does psychological distress vary by department characteristics? If so, is this relationship mediated by stressors/resources? - Do department characteristics moderate the relationship between stressors/resources and mental health? - Are there differences in the effects of department characteristics and stressors/resources on mental health, by gender and race/ethnicity? - How and to what extent do graduate students understand their social and academic experiences as stressful, and related to features of their departments? At a basic level, divisions (Natural & Mathematical Sciences vs. Social Sciences) and department characteristics (department climate and funding competition) differentiate students' psychological distress. However, department characteristics do not explain divisional differences; and students' psychological distress is largely explained by proximate stressors and resources. Very little socio-demographic variation is observed. Nevertheless, students' narratives highlight the importance of department characteristics to their stress experiences. Notably, students reflect on perceived inequalities in funding allocation, seeming lack of transparency in department decision-making, challenges defending academic identity, and the social consequences of each. These findings illuminate the importance of institutional contexts and advance current scholarship on education and psychological well-being. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]