Search Results (16)

Although career choice is a kind of individual behavior, as the gatekeeper of the discipline, doctoral students’ academic career intention reflects the attractiveness of the academic labor market and determines the sustainable development of academic careers. An analysis of data (N = 1322) from a survey among Chinese doctoral students reveals that (1) environmental factors, such as departmental atmosphere and advisor support, cognitive factors like academic interest and research self-efficacy, as well as behavioral factors including research engagement and publication rates, significantly promote doctoral students’ academic career intentions; (2) female doctoral students and those from prestigious institutions show stronger academic career aspirations; (3) the influence of interest factors on doctoral students’ commitment to an academic career is particularly pronounced, especially in the field of fundamental science; (4) a clear understanding of career paths positively moderates the effect of interest on academic career intentions. Within increasingly severe competition in the global academic labor market, it is necessary to provide more support for doctoral students who are willing to engage in academic careers by enhancing career planning guidance for doctoral students and supporting them in making rational career plans and adequate preparations. Full article

Increasing the attractiveness of research careers for PhD students has been a key objective of science, technology, and innovation policies worldwide. This study draws on an expanded career construction theory framework to examine the effects of proactive personality, employability social capital, and career adaptability on PhD students’ research career intentions as well as the moderating role of gender in this structural model. We collected data from 795 Chinese PhD students at 10 universities via an online questionnaire survey. Structural equation modeling analysis revealed that proactive personality had no significant direct effect on research career intentions; however, it could influence research career intentions indirectly via the separate and chain mediating effects of employability social capital and career adaptability. In addition, gender was shown to moderate the relationship between employability social capital and research career intentions. The theoretical and practical implications of this research are highlighted, and recommendations for future research are discussed. Full article

As doctoral education evolves globally, the focus intensifies on doctoral candidates’ academic performance and psychological well-being. Previous research has studied the effects of individual, societal, and environmental factors on students’ academic achievements. However, there is still a lack of investigation into how these factors interact, especially in the domains of arts. This study surveyed 213 Chinese musicology doctoral students and adopted Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to evaluate how various factors affect academic and mental health outcomes. The analysis shows that factors including teacher support, student engagement, and well-being positively influence academic performance, while academic anxiety negatively impacts academic performance. Moreover, variables help diminish academic anxiety, encompassing self-efficacy, parental support, time management skills, and student engagement. Meanwhile, enhanced doctoral students’ well-being is related to robust teacher support, facilitating conditions, and active student engagement. Notably, students who experience academic anxiety about their studies generally have lower well-being. These findings indicate that alleviating academic anxiety, refining academic resources, and reinforcing mental health supports can foster academic and psychological outcomes for doctoral students. Our study contributes vital empirical data to developing higher education policies, benefiting doctoral students’ mental health and academic success. Full article

Despite the growing recognition of the value of interdisciplinary learning in doctoral education, there is still a gap in the literature supporting the relationship between it and doctoral students’ scientific creativity in China. Based on a questionnaire survey of 457 doctoral students from the humanities and social sciences on the Chinese Mainland, this study adopted structural equation modeling to examine the relationships among interdisciplinary learning, teamwork skills, collaborative behaviors, and scientific creativity. The results indicated that there was a weak positive correlation between interdisciplinary learning and the scientific creativity of doctoral students. Teamwork skills mediated the relationship between interdisciplinary learning and creativity, while the mediating effect of collaborative behaviors did not hold. Moreover, the relationship between interdisciplinary learning and creativity can also be mediated by the sequential mediation of teamwork skills and collaborative behaviors. Full article

Objective: This study aims to explore the impact of research pressure on depression tendency among Chinese doctoral students and analyze the mediating effect of familial financial support in this relationship. Methods: Based on the ecological systems theory, this study employs a mediating effect model and OLS regression model for empirical analysis. Through an online questionnaire, 2815 valid data from Chinese doctoral students were successfully collected. Conclusion: The study finds that research pressure has a significant positive impact on depression tendency among doctoral students (t = 18.347, p < 0.01). Married doctoral students show relatively lower depression tendency, indicating a negative impact of marital status on depression tendency (t = 12.579, p < 0.01). In terms of gender, female doctoral students are more prone to depression compared to their male counterparts (t = −2.921, p < 0.01). Additionally, as the doctoral year progresses, depression tendency also tends to increase (t = 3.690, p < 0.01). Importantly, familial financial support is proven to be a significant mediator between research pressure and depression tendency, explaining 32.116% of the relationship. Suggestion: This study not only provides a multi-dimensional perspective for understanding the mental health issues of doctoral students but also offers a scientific basis for universities and related educational departments to formulate more precise mental health intervention strategies. Full article

The process of doctoral students transitioning from being knowledge learners to being knowledge researchers is beneficial for personal growth and career development. This study explores how doctoral students at Chinese research universities understand academic identity from a psychological perspective based on grounded theory. Understanding academic identity for doctoral students involves three psychological activities: situation recognition, psychological interaction, and reflective positioning. The sense of academic meaning and the sense of academic efficacy shape doctoral students’ understanding of academic identity, resulting in four patterns: Adeptness, Academic Pursuit, Alienation and Powerlessness, and Struggling for Meaning. Academic meaning serves as the internal driving force for developing academic identity, while academic efficacy acts as a psychological condition for maintaining academic identity. Therefore, it is crucial to enhance doctoral students’ recognition of academic meaning and academic efficacy. Full article

Doctoral students need guidance from both language teachers and academic supervisors for academic publication. However, previous studies have predominantly focused on corrective feedback from language teachers. The small number of studies on supervisory feedback were mainly undertaken in English-speaking countries on theses and dissertations, and mostly examined supervisors in applied linguistics, who probably have much in common with language professionals. To fill the research gaps, we investigated the foci of the feedback from a non-English-speaking supervisor on drafts of his doctoral students’ research article intended for a top conference in computer science. The results show that the supervisor commented not only on the content but also on the requirements for research writing, the logical flow of ideas, surface-level language issues, and visual elements. The findings can inform language teachers of what supervisors may value so that language professionals can provide feedback that better caters to the needs of students in research writing. Full article

Meta-analysis was used to investigate the impact of entrepreneurship education on college students’ entrepreneurial intention. Based on the rules of meta-analysis, 389 empirical studies were selected from more than 1000 entrepreneurship education-related documents. The current study processed and analyzed data from 36 records (including 24 journal articles, 11 master’s theses, and 1 doctoral thesis) with a total sample of 29,736 students. The results suggested that: (1) entrepreneurship education is positively associated with entrepreneurial intention; (2) national context differences among students have a significant and moderating effect on the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention. As compared to other countries, Chinese college students’ entrepreneurial intention is more strongly related with entrepreneurship education. Full article

This qualitative study is intended to explore the factors that contribute to the occupational stress suffered by Chinese doctoral supervisors and the kind of measures needed to effectively address the issue. Through purposive and snowballing sampling, 30 Chinese doctoral supervisors in different disciplines of natural science and social science were selected. A semi-structured interview protocol was used, and the data were analyzed based on grounded theory methodology. Chinese doctoral supervisors experienced varied stressors of nuanced nature, which could be categorized into two core categories, i.e., performance-appraisal-related factors and Ph.D. student-related factors, which were further divided into 18 subcategories and 10 higher-level categories. Chinese doctoral supervisors are under various sources of stress, corroborating with and reinforcing previous research findings in respect to occupational stress worldwide. Through the analysis of the stress triggers, suggestions are presented in regard to what mental health professionals and educational policy makers can do to address the issue of concern for doctoral supervisors. Full article

The coronavirus pandemic is forcing societal changes, even along the trajectories of international tourism, educational development, and training systems. Existing research has demonstrated that scholastic attainment, parental educational expectations, and school type have significant impacts on the self-educational expectations of migrant children. Nevertheless, there is still insufficient research on the differences in subject grades, parental educational expectations when it comes to choices regarding specific learning phases, and the impact of school types on specific learning phases. Taking “self-educational expectations = high school degree and below” as the control group, we selected the data of migrant children in grade nine from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) and employed multinomial logistic regression (MLR) to investigate the factors affecting the self-educational expectations of China’s migrant children. The results showed that the standardized scores of Chinese children and the math scores of migrant children only have a significant positive impact on their self-educational expectations for either a doctoral degree or master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree, respectively. Parental educational expectations will greatly facilitate the self-educational expectations of children when these are generally consistent with the type of choice of their children’s self-educational expectations. School type only plays a part when the self-educational expectations of migrant children are to attain a bachelor’s degree. The results can help us understand the differences in the educational expectations of parents and their children; guide parents to positively view their children’s scholastic attainment, emotions, and development goals; and help schools fairly allocate high-quality educational resources in promoting the integration of students from different backgrounds. Full article

Research on the health impacts of green environments has mainly been conducted in developed countries. Differences in the urban forms between China and Western countries make it essential to understand the role of greenspace in Chinese settings. From 2014 to 2015, middle school students (n = 5643) in Suzhou, China were enrolled in a study on the health effect of residential greenness. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and distance to the nearest park were calculated for each home address. Logistic regression was performed to test associations between exposure and self-reported doctor diagnoses of asthma, pneumonia, rhinitis, and eczema, adjusting for important confounders. No statistically significant associations were observed for any seasonal NDVI-based measures. However, the proximity of the participants’ residences to the closest park showed an inverse relationship to reported symptoms. The odds ratios for the furthest quartile compared to the closest quartile based on the distance to the nearest park were 0.58 (95% CI: 0.35, 0.99), 0.70 (95% CI: 0.50, 0.96), 0.92 (95% CI: 0.74, 1.15), 0.97 (95% CI: 0.76, 1.24), 0.86 (95% CI: 0.68, 1.10) for current asthma, ever asthma, ever pneumonia, ever rhinitis, and ever eczema, respectively. These findings focused on a single Chinese city and suggest that exposure to natural vegetation in urban areas may affect health through various pathways. Full article

Objective: Inappropriate antibiotic use leads to antibiotic resistance. This has become a serious global crisis, with more multi-drug resistant infections and fewer effective antibiotics available. This study aims to understand knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) with respect to antibiotic use for self-limiting illnesses among medical students in China. Methods: An online cross-sectional survey instrument questionnaire was distributed in six regional universities in China from September to November 2015. Overall, 1819 medical students were enrolled. A pre-tested questionnaire was delivered by the researchers. KAP scores were calculated to determine the appropriation. Chi-squared and multivariable logistic regression and adjusted odd ratios (aORs) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to assess the relationship between the demographic characteristics and antibiotic use knowledge and behaviour. Results: In total, 11,192 students completed the questionnaires, with a response rate of 95%. In total, 529 (29%) medical students reported at least one self-limiting illness in the prior month. Of those with a self-limiting illness, 285 (54%) self-medicated, with 77 (27%) using antibiotics; 111 (21%) went to see a doctor, of which 64 (58%) were prescribed antibiotics, and 133 did nothing (25%). In the past year, 279 (15%) of medical students had used antibiotics as prophylaxis, and 273 (15%) of medical students had demanded an antibiotic from a doctor. Meanwhile, 1166 (64%) of them kept a personal stock of antibiotics, and 1034 (57%) of them had bought antibiotics at a pharmacy, of which 97% were purchased without a prescription. Students with high KAP scores with respect to antibiotics were significantly less likely to self-medicate with antibiotics (aOR 0.37, 95% CI 0.15–0.91, p = 0.031), use antibiotics for prophylaxis (aOR 0.35, 95% CI 0.21–0.60, p < 0.0001), or demand an antibiotic (aOR 0.46, 95% CI 0.26–0.81, p = 0.007) from the doctor. Logistical regression showed that students whose fathers had a higher education level, whose mothers had medical background, who were from urban areas were more likely to stock antibiotics and self-medicate with antibiotics. Conclusion: High rates of antibiotic self-medication for self-limiting illness and stocking of antibiotics among medical students were observed. Along with the high rates of medical students receiving unnecessary antibiotics from their doctors were observed. The students’ knowledge and attitude towards to antibiotics, which drive prescribing, highlight the urgent need for effective antibiotic stewardship and training programs in Chinese healthcare institutes and medical schools. Full article

This study aims to explore the association of anthropometric indices of obesity with hypertension in Chinese elderly and its possible gender and age differences. A total of 7070 adults age 60 or older were interviewed in a cross-sectional study conducted in 2017. Anthropometric indices for each participant were measured by using standard methods of trained doctoral/master students. We performed two binary logistic regression models to examine the association of the nine different anthropometric indices and hypertension by gender. Lastly, analyses were performed in two steps stratified for age. Comparing individuals with and without hypertension, there were statistically significant differences in anthropometric indices except height, a body shape index (ABSI), and hip index (HI) in males; and except height in females. There were gender differences in the relationship between anthropometric indices and the prevalence of hypertension in Chinese older adults. After stratification by age, the associations of all anthropometric indices became weaker, disappeared, or even went in the opposite direction. Furthermore, body mass index (BMI) in men (except individuals older than 80) and hip circumference (HC) in women showed a significant impact on the risk of hypertension. The association of anthropometric indices of obesity with hypertension in Chinese elderly differ by gender and age. These findings indicate a need to develop gender-specific strategies for the male and female elderly in the primary and secondary prevention of hypertension. Full article

Background: Inappropriate use of antibiotics has caused antimicrobial resistance, presenting a major health challenge to the world population. Self-medication with antibiotics (SMA) is currently at an alarming level in China. Objectives: To determine the sources of antibiotics leftover at home, the risk factors of keeping antibiotics at home, and the associations between keeping antibiotics at home and SMA among Chinese university students. Methods: Six provinces were purposely selected from six regions of China, and one multi-disciplinary university was selected from each chosen province. A total of 11,192 university students were selected using cluster random sampling from the selected universities. Logistic regression was conducted to examine the relationship between keeping antibiotics at home and SMA. Results: Out of the 11,192 students surveyed, 7057 (63.1%) reported keeping antibiotics at home at the time they were surveyed. Of those who kept antibiotics in their home, 1965 (27.8%) reported that these antibiotics were left over from a previous prescription by a doctor and 4893 (69.3%), purchased antibiotics over the counter. Additionally, 29.6% (507/1711) of students self-medicated with antibiotics when ill during the month before the survey. Students keeping antibiotics at home were five times (95% CI 3.53, 7.05) more likely to engage in SMA when ill and 2.6 times (95% CI 2.34, 2.89) more likely to self-medicating with antibiotics for prophylaxis than the other students. Female students, those with a family background of higher education, and those who had a parent working in the medical field had a significantly higher chance of keeping antibiotics at home. Conclusions: The high prevalence of keeping antibiotics at home and SMA among young adults is a serious concern. Professional regulations and population-tailored health education are needed. Full article

Although a large body of literature has suggested that doctoral supervisors play an important role in their students’ attempts at scholarly publishing, few studies have focused specifically on what roles they play. This study sought to address this gap by zooming in on the various roles a group of Chinese doctoral students found their supervisors playing in their scholarly publishing endeavors. Our analysis revealed four important roles played by the supervisors: ‘prey’ searchers, managers, manuscript correctors and masters. The results showed that the supervisors not only facilitated the doctoral students’ publishing output, but also fostered their apprenticeship in scholarly publishing and the academic community. However, the results also unveiled a general unavailability of sorely-needed detailed and specific guidance on students’ early publishing attempts and some supervisors’ limited ability to correct students’ English manuscripts. These findings underscore the important contributions doctoral supervisors can make to their students’ academic socialization. They also suggest a need for external editorial assistance with doctoral students’ English manuscripts and ample opportunities for their scaffolded initiation into the tacit conventions and practices of scholarly publishing. Full article