(1616) DOCTORAL STUDENTS SATISFACTION: WHAT IS THE ROLE OF ACADEMIC SOCIAL SUPPORT?

摘要

The extensive volume of research has been pointing the important role of social support in promoting and maintaining physical and psychological well-being, as well as protecting against the negative effects of stress [1,2,3]. Considering doctoral education, in specific, the literature points for higher levels of stress, isolations and low levels of well-being [4,5,6] In the survey study a sample of 265 Portuguese doctoral students from different scientific domains answered a standardized instrument concerning competence development, academic social support and satisfaction with the doctoral studies. A multiple hierarchical regression considering competencies of intellectual and learning autonomy as predictors accounts for 42.7% of variance of satisfaction with the doctoral studies (F(9, 255)=21.090; p<.001). In the last step, the social support variables revealed the important role of supervisors and peers accounting for 19.3% of the explained variance (F(4, 255)=21.458; p<.001). Results highlight the importance for the development of autonomous learning and perceiving the availability of different social support as the key-aspects for feeling higher levels of satisfaction with doctoral studies.