Perceived abusive supervision and mental health among Chinese graduate students: the chain mediating roles of autonomy need and professional identity

BMC Psychol. 2025 Aug 23;13(1):959. doi: 10.1186/s40359-025-03324-5.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The mental health issue of graduate students related to the strained relationships with their academic supervisors has triggered wide concern and heated discussion recently. The study aimed to explore the relationship between abusive supervision and the mental health of graduate students, and the mediating roles of autonomy need and professional identity.

METHOD: An online survey was conducted among 233 graduate students and the perceived abusive supervision, autonomy need, professional identity and the three indicators of mental health (anxiety, depressive symptoms and psychache) were measured.

RESULTS: It was found that perceived abusive supervision positively correlated to the latent variable mental health, and it worked through the respective mediating effects of autonomy need (β = 0.060, p = 0.004, 95% CI = [0.019, 0.100]), professional identity (β = 0.054, p = 0.004, 95% CI = [0.017, 0.090]) and the chain mediating effect of them (β = 0.006, p = 0.028, 95% CI = [0.001, 0.011]). The total indirect effect size was 0.119 (p < 0.001, 95% CI = [0.066, 0.173]), accounting for 24.44% of overall effect size. These findings deepen the understanding of the influence of abusive supervision on mental health among graduate students and provide practical insights into psychosocial intervention from the perspective of the Conservation of Resources theory and Self-Determination theory.

PMID:40849637 | DOI:10.1186/s40359-025-03324-5