8. Limitations and Future Research
RECRUITMENT
Several limitations should be acknowledged. First, the participants, being doctoral researchers recruited mainly by higher education institutions promoting the study through emails and social media who voluntarily registered for a writing retreat, may possess different characteristics or motivations compared to other doctoral students, potentially introducing a selection bias. However, the recruitment of a sample including 62% of participants who never attended a writing retreat before mitigates this concern and contributes to the study’s representativeness. Second, the gender composition of the sample was skewed, with only 24% identifying as men. This ratio does not align with the national gender distribution at the doctoral level across disciplines in Canada, where men typically outnumber women, except in education and psychology [Third, the study relied on self-report measures for assessing mental health outcomes, which may be influenced by factors such as social desirability bias or subjective interpretations of the items. Incorporating objective measures or additional data sources, such as observations by clinical professionals, could provide a more comprehensive understanding of participants’ mental health. Finally, the study focused on short-term effects and did not assess long-term outcomes, leaving the sustainability of observed improvements in mental health unclear. Future research should include follow-up assessments to determine the durability of effects and explore factors influencing the maintenance of improved mental health. Investigating the role of individual characteristics, facilitator qualities, and different types of retreats (e.g., virtual retreats, discipline-specific retreats) could be potential avenues for future research.