Academic Identity Through Embedded Academic Networks: Evidence from Chinese Graduate Students

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 9:45 am - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Networks, trust, and belonging for underrepresented students

Abstract

Drawing on a survey of 1,910 Chinese academic-track postgraduates, this study investigates how embeddedness in multi-level academic communities shapes academic identity. OLS and quantile regression reveal that supervisory support and curricular diversity are the most consistent predictors, with stronger effects among students with weaker academic identity. Subgroup analysis shows that aspirants rely more on near-community ties, while materialists benefit disproportionately from visible outputs like publishing. Shapley value decomposition confirms the structural dominance of proximal academic relationships. These findings highlight differentiated identity-building mechanisms across student types and suggest that identity formation is not uniform but contingent upon both institutional support and motivational orientation.

Authors

• Jiaqi He, Nanjing University

• yunyi luo, East China Normal University