Staffordshire University logo
STORE - Staffordshire Online Repository

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

Jackman, Patricia, Carter, Esther, Sisson, Kelly, SLATER, Matthew and Bird, Matthew (2022) Social support, social identification, mental wellbeing, and psychological distress in doctoral students: A person-centred analysis. Journal of Further and Higher Education. ISSN 0309-877X

[img]
Preview
Text
Social support social identification mental wellbeing and psychological distress in doctoral students A person centred analysis.pdf - Publisher's typeset copy
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

Download (969kB) | Preview

Abstract or description

This study extends the doctoral education literature by examining how social support and social identification, as they apply to peers, supervisors, and the academic community, are related to mental wellbeing and psychological distress in doctoral students by using personcentred analysis to create social profiles. Doctoral students (N = 200) completed a crosssectional survey including measures of perceived support, received support, social identification, mental wellbeing, and psychological distress. Adopting a person-centred analysis approach, we identified six distinct social profiles for mental wellbeing, and four social profiles for psychological distress. Further between-profile analysis indicated that the “high support-identification” profile was associated with higher levels of mental wellbeing and lowest levels of psychological distress. In comparison, the “low support-identification” profile reported significantly lower mental wellbeing and significantly higher psychological distress. Taken together, the findings demonstrate the value of person-centred analysis and offers new insights into the nuances of relationships between social support, social identification, mental wellbeing, and psychological distress. The theoretical and practical implications arising from this research are discussed.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Further and Higher Education, available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/0309877X.2022.2088272
Uncontrolled Keywords: doctoral education; early career researcher; mental health; research environment; supervision; peer support.
Faculty: School of Life Sciences and Education > Sport and Exercise
Depositing User: Matthew SLATER
Date Deposited: 22 Jun 2022 15:58
Last Modified: 04 Apr 2023 11:13
URI: https://eprints.staffs.ac.uk/id/eprint/7366

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

DisabledGo Staffordshire University is a recognised   Investor in People. Sustain Staffs
Legal | Freedom of Information | Site Map | Job Vacancies
Staffordshire University, College Road, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire ST4 2DE t: +44 (0)1782 294000