How does social support contribute to engaging post-PhD experience?

Abstract

Social support from the supervisor and the researcher community has been identified as one of the determinants for successful completion of doctoral studies. Still surprisingly little known about the function of social support for early career Post-PhD researchers. Even less is known about the individual variation in experienced social support among Post-PhD researchers. This study explores the function of social support in terms of experienced research engagement, burnout and abandonment intentions among Post-PhD researchers. Altogether, 282 Post-PhD researchers from UK and Spanish universities completed the survey. The cluster analysis was applied. Results show that the majority of participants experienced high levels of supervisory and researcher community support. Researchers representing an Adequate Support profile were less likely to experience burnout or to consider abandonment; they also experienced a higher degree of research engagement than their less fortunate counterparts. Further, Post-PhD researchers working in research groups were more likely to display the Adequate Support profile than those working primarily on their own. Strikingly, scientists were more likely than social scientists to be represented in the Reduced Support profile. Interestingly, there were no statistically significant differences between the UK and Spanish Post-PhD or female and male researchers in support profiles.

‘It wasn't just the academic stuff, it was life stuff’: the significance of peers in strengthening the Indigenous health researcher workforce

“…The contribution of this paper is to foreground the great significance placed by Indigenous researchers on their Indigenous peers—not just in enhanced research learning, upping retention and completion rates and academic success but in (work) life quality, (inter)personal growth, leadership and flourishing. Although peer relations figure in the higher education and research workplace literatures (Meschitti, 2019; Pyhältö et al ., 2017), the current findings suggest that the importance of Indigenous peer relations in research capability and workforce strengthening is understated. In addition, although policy at best takes an indirect approach to inter-peer learning and research collaboration, strategic research workforce strengthening should centre on peer leadership that leans to strong collective agency.…”

“…The educational research literature on peers is diverse, such and framed around social capital (Mishra, 2020), collegiality (Jacelon et al ., 2003) and social support (Pyhältö et al ., 2017). Peers figure positively in experiences of research education, research employment and research collaboration—during PhD candidature (Meschitti, 2019), early career (Pyhältö et al ., 2017), mid and later career (Agee and Li, 2018).…”

“…The educational research literature on peers is diverse, such and framed around social capital (Mishra, 2020), collegiality (Jacelon et al ., 2003) and social support (Pyhältö et al ., 2017). Peers figure positively in experiences of research education, research employment and research collaboration—during PhD candidature (Meschitti, 2019), early career (Pyhältö et al ., 2017), mid and later career (Agee and Li, 2018). Peer relationships appear to be important instigators in creating more supporting spaces in research and education settings, especially local peer-initiated groups (Esposito et al ., 2017)—for instance, women supporting one another during the PhD (Barata et al ., 2005), and career progression at the faculty level (Elg and Jonnergard, 2003; Hernandez et al ., 2015).…”

Similar or different?

“…Data were collected by email through a Doctoral Experience survey (Pyhältö et al, 2009(Pyhältö et al, , 2015. The survey instrument has been used and developed since 2006 and validated in several contexts, both in national (Pyhältö et al, 2016) and international research projects (Pyhältö et al, 2017). The Doctoral Experience survey included Likert-type statements and open-ended questions.…”

“…The researcher community and supervisory support model Social support comprises the resources perceived to be available and provided to doctoral studentsincluding supervision (teams), mentoring schemes, feedback systems and peer groupsby their institutional and educational environment. The resources available includes both formal and informal relationships within the researcher community, with peers, supervisors, other staff members, and even professional networks beyond the institution (Vekkaila et al, 2016;Pyhältö et al, 2017;Gardner and Mendoza, 2010;Boud and Lee, 2005;Wisker et al, 2017;Bengtsen, 2016a). Drawing on the Researcher Community and Supervisory Supportmodel (Pyhältö, 2018), distinction between the four complementary elements of the support can be made:…”