Three-way interaction effect of hindrance research stressors, inclusive mentoring style, and academic resilience on research creativity among doctoral students from China

Abstract

Abstract With the increasingly intense academic competition, the stressors faced by doctoral students are gradually escalating. Based on the Job Demands-Resources Model, this study proposed a moderated moderation to explore how hindrance research stressors affect doctoral students’ research creativity. Explicitly, the present study investigates whether the relationship between hindrance research stressors and research creativity is contingent on inclusive mentoring style and academic resilience. By analyzing the survey data from 538 valid questionnaire responses of doctoral students in China, this study has revealed that hindrance research stressors negatively relate to doctoral students’ research creativity, and inclusive mentoring style from academic supervisors can mitigate the negative impact of hindrance research stressors on the research creativity of doctoral students. Furthermore, academic resilience strengthens the moderating effect of inclusive mentoring style. Specifically, it buffers the negative impact of hindrance research stressors on research creativity among doctoral students who receive high inclusive mentoring, but not among those with low levels of inclusive mentoring. These findings emphasize that effective strategies to enhance the research creativity of doctoral students who encounter hindrance stressors may require the joint consideration of contextual and personal resources.