Impact of personal resources on well-being of doctoral students in Indian higher academic institutions

ABSTRACT

Objective

The quantitative measurement and antecedents of doctoral well-being have not been sufficiently explored in the extant literature, creating a significant gap based on alarming statistics of high attrition rates and psychological distress among PhD scholars. Therefore, based on the theory of conservation of resources, our study examines the role of personal resources such as harmonious passion (HP), Grit, and psychological capital (PsyCap) in enhancing PhD students’ well-being. Additionally, it proposes a novel conceptualisation of doctoral well-being, combining research engagement (eudaimonic well-being) and satisfaction (hedonic well-being).

Method

We use structural equation modelling to analyse data collected from 239 doctoral students in India’s higher educational institutions (HEI).

Results

The results show that HP and Grit are significantly and positively associated with doctoral students’ well-being while PsyCap partially mediates the relationship of HP and Grit with well-being.

Conclusions

HP and Grit are personal resources which can enhance doctoral students’ well-being. PsyCap assists in this process through resource gain whereby students with higher personal resources could gather further resources, leading to hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. The study also highlights practical implications for supervisors and management of HEIs.

KEY POINTS

What is known about this topic:

• (1) There is a greater prevalence of stress, depression, and anxiety among doctoral students than undergraduate students and employees.

• (2) Higher levels of personal resources make individuals less vulnerable to stress and act as antecedents to student well-being.

• (3) A clear understanding of well-being in the PhD context is yet to be established.

What this topic adds:

• (1) Studies the role of Harmonious Passion and Grit concurrently as personal resources to aid success in the under-studied educational setting of Ph. D.

• (2) Doctoral students’ well-being is operationalised as a combination of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being.

• (3) Empirically examines the mediating role of Psychological Capital between resources and well-being among Indian PhD candidates.

KEYWORDS:

• Doctoral students’ well-being
• grit
• harmonious passion
• personal resources
• PhD
• psychological capital

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data supporting this study’s findings are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Notes

1. In order to ensure that control variables do not significantly affect the results, an additional SEM was conducted, including the control variables. The regression values are shown in the Appendix.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for this article’s research, authorship, and/or publication.