Social Support as a Resource for Promoting Positive Work-Life Relationship and Reducing PhD Candidates' Burnout

• In Event: Graduate and Postdoctoral Supervision, Mentoring, and Professional Development

Abstract

Developing effective measures to promote PhD candidates’ wellbeing has been called after. Yet, research on the topic is limited. We explored the interrelation between PhD candidates’ experiences of supervisory and research community support, work-life relations, and study burnout symptoms with survey data collected from. 768 Finnish PhD candidates. The data were analyzed with SEM. The results showed that the research community and supervisory support were related to decreased risk for developing study burnout. The research community support contributed to candidates’ satisfaction with their work-life relations further decreasing the risk of study burnout. The findings indicate that the supervisory and researcher community support provide an important resource for reducing PhD candidates’ burnout risk and the positive work-life relationship.

Authors

• Lotta Tikkanen, University of Helsinki
  Presenting Author

• Henrika Anttila, University of Helsinki
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kirsi Maria Pyhalto, University of Helsinki
  Presenting Author