TY - JOUR
T1 - Who matters and why? The contributions of different sources of social support to doctoral students' academic engagement
AU - Cao, Fei
AU - Li, Huan
AU - Chen, Xin
AU - You, Yanwei
AU - Xue, Yan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Authors. European Journal of Education published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Social support is a crucial factor in the academic engagement of doctoral students, which is vital to their overall success. While past studies have mostly focused on the support from doctoral supervisors, support from other significant groups, including institutions, peers and families, has been largely neglected, and even no study has investigated their contributions to doctoral students' development. Drawing from the job demands-resources model, this study investigated the contributions of different sources (institutions, supervisors, peers and families) of social support to doctoral students' academic engagement. It further examined the mediating role of grit within these relationships. A sample of 472 doctoral students across various disciplines from 10 universities in mainland China responded to an online survey. Results showed that institutional support and supervisory support positively predicted doctoral students' academic engagement, while peer support and family support did not significantly predict academic engagement. Furthermore, grit was found to mediate the relationship between support from institutions and supervisors and academic engagement. Practical implications for higher education institutions, doctoral supervisors and programs are discussed.
AB - Social support is a crucial factor in the academic engagement of doctoral students, which is vital to their overall success. While past studies have mostly focused on the support from doctoral supervisors, support from other significant groups, including institutions, peers and families, has been largely neglected, and even no study has investigated their contributions to doctoral students' development. Drawing from the job demands-resources model, this study investigated the contributions of different sources (institutions, supervisors, peers and families) of social support to doctoral students' academic engagement. It further examined the mediating role of grit within these relationships. A sample of 472 doctoral students across various disciplines from 10 universities in mainland China responded to an online survey. Results showed that institutional support and supervisory support positively predicted doctoral students' academic engagement, while peer support and family support did not significantly predict academic engagement. Furthermore, grit was found to mediate the relationship between support from institutions and supervisors and academic engagement. Practical implications for higher education institutions, doctoral supervisors and programs are discussed.
KW - academic engagement
KW - doctoral students
KW - grit
KW - social support
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85189770281&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/ejed.12649
DO - 10.1111/ejed.12649
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85189770281
SN - 0141-8211
VL - 59
JO - European Journal of Education
JF - European Journal of Education
IS - 3
M1 - e12649
ER -