The impacts of psychological capital and perceived social support on doctoral students' development : the mediating role of academic engagement

Abstract

In the knowledge-based economy, doctoral students play a crucial role in producing knowledge and innovation that drive economic growth. With the rapid expansion of doctoral education in recent decades, the quality of doctoral education has been a concern for higher education and society. Nevertheless, research attention paid to doctoral students’ development is still limited. Hence, the present research focused on doctoral students’ development and the factors contributing to it. Specifically, the present research first investigated the relationships of psychological capital (PsyCap) and perceived social support to doctoral students’ development in terms of creativity and subjective well-being. Second, this research examined the mediating role of academic engagement in the relationships of PsyCap and perceived social support to creativity and subjective well-being. The present research utilized a quantitatively-driven, mixed research design involving three phases. Phase I was a pilot study designed to validate the six inventories for use in Phase II and to preliminarily examine the relationships among the key variables in the conceptual model. In the pilot study, 376 doctoral students were recruited from two comprehensive universities in Jiangsu Province, mainland China. Phase II, the main study, utilized a quantitative method design to further validate the inventories adopted in this research and to examine the research questions. A total of 472 doctoral students across various disciplines from 10 universities in mainland China responded to an online survey. Results showed that 1) PsyCap (i.e., self-efficacy, hope, and resilience) and perceived social support (i.e., institutional support and supervisory support) statistically predicted doctoral students’ creativity (comprising novelty and usefulness), and PsyCap (i.e., self-efficacy, hope, and optimism) and perceived social support (i.e., institutional support, supervisory support, peer support, and family support) statistically predicted doctoral students’ subjective well-being (composed of positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction); and 2) academic engagement mediated a number of relationships of PsyCap and perceived social support to doctoral students’ creativity and subjective well-being. Phase III was a follow-up qualitative study in which individual interviews were conducted to understand the unexpected findings obtained from the main study. The qualitative study involved 13 doctoral students who were purposefully selected from the participants of the main study. The interview data indicated that, unlike results from the quantitative study, optimism, peer support, family support, and vigor were important in promoting doctoral students’ creativity, and resilience was crucial in improving doctoral students’ subjective well-being. The present research has theoretical and empirical implications. Theoretically, it enriches the literature on all five key research variables and that on doctoral education. Practically, it has implications for key stakeholders of higher education (i.e., institutions, supervisors, doctoral students, and their family members) in helping doctoral students optimize their development that can further foster economic development.