Social support, social identification, mental wellbeing, and psychological distress in doctoral students: A person-centred analysis

Jackman, Patricia C.; Slater, Matthew J.; Carter, Esther E; Sisson, Kelly; Bird, Matthew D.

doi:10.1080/0309877x.2022.2088272

Cited by 18 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 45 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…They may behave differently from their domestic peers and feel difficult to interpret and meet the institution's expectations in teaching, learning, and research settings. As prior research concurs that doctoral students usually report poor mental health (Jackman et al, 2022), these identity gaps, together with acculturative stress, put more pressure on cultural minority students to develop professionally and personally (Colbeck, 2008;Soong et al, 2015).…”

Section: Acculturative Stress Intersects With Academic Identity Devel...mentioning

confidence: 93%

Academic Identity Development of Asian International Doctoral Students at a Public University – A Reflexive Thematic Analysis

Pham

2022

IJDS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Aim/Purpose: This study explores the development of academic identity among a group of Asian international doctoral students at a U.S. research university in various settings, including interacting with students and faculty members and reflecting on their personal journeys. Background: In 2020-2021, 132, 000 international doctoral students enrolled in U.S. universities – an increase of 71% since 2000. Despite this, relatively little is known about their academic identity development and how acculturative stress affects their academic growth. Methodology: A conceptual framework was constructed to integrate the concepts of acculturative stress and academic identity development. With the premise that academic identity development comprises three strands of intellectual, network, and institutional, the current framework conceptualizes the intersection of acculturative stress in all three strands to explore the tensions of balancing home-host culture values while international doctoral students grow into a new identity. Reflexive thematic analysis was applied to study the narratives of eight Asian international doctoral students and identified four main themes characterizing the participants’ academic identity development under acculturative stress. Contribution: This study contributes to an understudied area of higher education literature, directing the attention of the academic community to a small but growing group of junior academics. When examined in the confluence with acculturative stress, the conceptualization of academic identity is extended to include academics from cultural minorities. Findings: Acculturative stress intersects with all three strands of academic identity development, inhibiting participants’ progress in their doctoral programs. Acculturative stress also makes participants more hesitant to adopt an academic identity. Recommendations for Practitioners: This paper informs leaders and managers at departmental and university levels about cultural inclusiveness in doctoral training programs. Cultural minority students face the challenge of acculturative stress, an issue that distinguishes them from racial or gender minority groups; therefore, simply replicating race or gender inclusion initiatives is unlikely to be an ideal model for a culturally inclusive program. Recommendation for Researchers: The findings of this study indicate that Asian doctoral international students deviate from the commonly accepted view of academic identity in that they do not define intellectual growth strictly in terms of paper-trailed achievements (e.g., number of publications or grants), and they view jobs within and outside academia as equally attractive. Impact on Society: Doctoral training programs at universities are the suppliers of doctoral-level workers for industry. However, some programs, especially in the social sciences and humanities, focus on academic job placements. To broaden the impact on society, educational leaders need to expand the professional development training elements in such programs to prepare doctoral candidates for opportunities outside of academia. Future Research: Other aspects of doctoral training programs could be explored, such as the development of instructor identity and the changes in student identity.

show abstract

Section: Acculturative Stress Intersects With Academic Identity Devel...mentioning

confidence: 93%

Academic Identity Development of Asian International Doctoral Students at a Public University – A Reflexive Thematic Analysis

Pham

2022

IJDS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In contrast to traditional one-on-one supervision, today's supervisors collaborate with international specialists and support the intellectual, psychosocial components of the student that connect the exosystem level (Baydarova et al (2021). According to Juniper et al (2012), a balanced match between a student and supervisor is favorably correlated with student satisfaction, well-being, reduced dropout risk and mental health (Dericks et al, 2019;Jackman et al, 2023). Doctoral students can be more creative when under group supervision, particularly when conducting multidisciplinary research (Corn er et al, 2023).…”

Section: Intrinsic Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to Juniper et al . (2012), a balanced match between a student and supervisor is favorably correlated with student satisfaction, well-being, reduced dropout risk and mental health (Dericks et al ., 2019; Jackman et al ., 2023). Doctoral students can be more creative when under group supervision, particularly when conducting multidisciplinary research (Cornér et al ., 2023).…”

Section: Research Self-efficacymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Due to a lack of accessibility from formal departments, one-third of doctoral candidates in the UK turn to informal, non-academic sources like family, a personal doctor, peers and online resources (Waight and Giordano, 2018; Wang et al ., 2023). The main social resources of the Ph.D. program include peer groups, academic communities, research networks and online or offline special interest groups (at the exosystem level) to preserve a scholar's health (Jackman et al ., 2023; Pyhältö et al ., 2017). In order to successfully complete a doctoral program, social support in the form of academic friends or peers as well as family is essential (Jairam and Kahl, 2012).…”

Section: Research Self-efficacymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A holistic model of resources to enhance the doctoral student's well-being

Acharya,

Rajendran

2023

IJEM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PurposeThis study aims to perform a scoping review of the recent studies on critical resources required for the doctoral program by mapping the resources at various levels of Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems and their underlying theories. The study proposes a holistic model of supportive resources in the doctoral education.Design/methodology/approachThe current scoping review is supported by Arksey and O'Malley's five-stage methodological guidance The authors reported sixty-eight articles that were published between 2010 and 2023 and complied with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist.FindingsThe study identified two categories of resources that promote doctoral student well-being: personal resources such as research self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation of the doctoral student. Second, the contextual resources provided by supervisors, department, family, peers, institution and Government policy impact the well-being of doctoral students. The study relied on the self-determination and conservation of resources theory to determine doctoral students' stress-free, high-quality research journey.Practical implicationsThe study findings can help higher education institutions, supervisors, peers and academicians plan and implement the finest resources to improve the well-being of doctoral students. The institutions can develop a wide range of strategies, tailored supportive programs, and interventions that can help in improving students' mental and emotional health, based on the developed multifaceted resource framework. Doctoral students can also use the review's findings to help them deal with program obstacles by encouraging themselves internally and participating in mentoring programs.Originality/valueThis review article proposes a comprehensive conceptual framework by considering Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems on multilevel resources that help to understand the inter-relationship between resources required in the doctoral student's program.

show abstract

“…While recognising the negative impact of numerous academic and social challenges (e.g. isolation, stress and work–life balance) on the academic success and well-being of graduates (Evans et al , 2018; Liu et al , 2019), any student-led research engagement activity would provide an alternative to address such critical issues (Jackman et al , 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research café: an informal learning space to promote research learning experiences of graduate students in a private university of Pakistan

Ahmad,

Ansari,

Khawaja

et al. 2023

SGPE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose This paper aims to explore contribution of informal learning space - Research Cafe - to enrich research learning experiences of graduate students. Developing strong research skills among graduate students is a prime focus of higher education around the world. Thereby, universities are striving to maximise opportunities that can foster and enrich students’ learning experiences of research; however, the focus is mostly confined to formal opportunities such as research method courses and thesis writing. The provision of informal learning spaces has been recognised as a useful tool for fostering research learning experiences of graduates. This reflective paper is among a few focusing on a model of student-led informal learning space for enriching research experiences in higher education in the context of Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a reflective approach to generate a metalogue. The research experiences shared by the participants were further reflected by the authors after each research café session. The authors then shared their collective metacognitive reflections with each other, generating a metalogue, which was used as the data set. The metalogue was analysed thematically to generate themes. Findings Findings reveal that the research café is an informal space to promote academic socialisation by providing a conducive environment, peer support and informal supervision opportunities to foster the research learning experiences of graduate students. Importantly, the model presented in this paper provides a complimentary pathway for boosting learning experiences. Research limitations/implications This paper would be useful for graduate students, faculty and university manager to acknowledge the potential of informal learning spaces in promoting research learning experiences. This paper highlights opportunities for replication, and further empirical research are needed to establish the efficacy of research café. Originality/value This study contributes to the global debate about graduate research learning experiences through informal learning space, which is yet to be explored, particularly in developing contexts like Pakistan. The idea of the research café is original, as it was conceived keeping in consideration the contextual and cultural aspects. The methodology used in this paper was specifically derived which can be replicated by other researchers.

show abstract

Social support, social identification, mental wellbeing, and psychological distress in doctoral students: A person-centred analysis

Cited by 18 publications

References 45 publications

Academic Identity Development of Asian International Doctoral Students at a Public University – A Reflexive Thematic Analysis

Academic Identity Development of Asian International Doctoral Students at a Public University – A Reflexive Thematic Analysis

A holistic model of resources to enhance the doctoral student's well-being

Research café: an informal learning space to promote research learning experiences of graduate students in a private university of Pakistan

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About