A Research Of The Relationship Between Academic Stress And Subjective Well-being Of Graduate Students:A Chain-mediated Model Of Social Support And Resilience

Master’s education is necessary to improve careers by promoting progress in career paths,personal growth and strengthening national economies.Graduate students often find Master’s education very stressful,which can have quite a few negative effects on their daily lives.Stress can lead to impaired coping skills,poor academic performance,reduced cognitive functioning,and low life satisfaction,which can lead to academic career failure.Many universities require master’s students to publish a certain number and quality of articles and participate in their supervisors’ research projects during their graduate studies,which makes master’s students bear a lot of academic and research pressure in the process of graduate studies.Nowadays,the mental health and well-being of graduate students are beginning to receive increasing attention from researchers.Subjective well-being has an important motivational role in improving the quality of life and psychological health of individuals,maintaining interpersonal harmony,and shaping a rational and peaceful social mindset.For graduate students,subjective well-being reflects their evaluation of the quality of life and affects their ability to adapt to life,which in turn affects their academic research and career development.Studies have shown that the level of subjective well-being of graduate students is significantly lower than that of undergraduate students(Jiang & Chen,2020).Study 1 revised the Master’s Academic Stress Scale based on extensive literature review and reference to related scales to measure the extent of academic-related events among Chinese master’s students.After administering the questionnaire twice,the final scale with 5 dimensions and 25 questions was developed,including thesis stress,research stress,external stress,professional learning stress,and employment prospect stress.Study 2 examined the relationship between academic stress and subjective well-being of master’s students using the Master’s Academic Stress Scale and examined the role of social support and psychological resilience in mediating the chain between academic stress and subjective well-being of master’s students.The two studies yielded the following results:(1)The academic stress scale for master’s degree students was developed based on existing scales and contained a total of 25 questions in 5 dimensions,namely,thesis stress,research stress,external stress,professional study stress,and employment prospect stress.The internal consistency coefficient of the scale was 0.922,and the internal consistency coefficients of each dimension ranged from 0.709 to 0.854;the results of the validation factor analysis showed that the model fit of the scale was good.(2)The overall academic stress of master’s degree students was high.The academic stress of master’s degree students is significantly negatively correlated with subjective well-being,life satisfaction,positive emotion,social support and psychological resilience,and is significantly positively correlated with negative emotion;social support is significantly positively correlated with psychological resilience,subjective well-being,life satisfaction and positive emotion,and is significantly negatively correlated with negative emotion;psychological Psychological resilience was significantly and positively correlated with subjective well-being,life satisfaction,and positive emotion,and negatively correlated with negative emotion.(3)To test the chain mediating role of social support and psychological resilience between academic stress and subjective well-being among master’s degree students,structural equation modeling was developed and validated using Amos 24.0.The results showed that the indices of the model fit well.The path coefficients from academic stress to social support,psychological resilience and subjective well-being of master’s students were significant at P<0.001;the path coefficient from social support to psychological resilience was also significant at P<0.001;the path coefficient from social support to subjective well-being was not significant;the path coefficient from psychological resilience to subjective well-being was significant at P<0.001.social support and psychological resilience played a significant role in the chain between academic stress and subjective well-being of master’s students.Social support and psychological resilience play a fully chain mediating role between academic stress and subjective well-being of master’s students.