Supervisor-student relationship and anxiety among graduate students: a moderated mediation model

The psychological crises associated with poor supervisor-student relationship among graduate students have raised growing public concerns. In the Chinese graduate education context, supervisors play a central and highly influential role in students' academic development, which makes the supervisor-student relationship particularly critical for their psychological well-being. This study examined the association between supervisor-student relationship and anxiety, the mediating role of general self-efficacy, and the moderating role of attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help among Chinese graduate students.

A total of 1233 Chinese graduate students (36.6% female; M_age = 24.19, SD = 2.21, range = 20-40 years) participated in the study and completed measures of Teacher-Student Relationship Quality Questionnaire, General Self-Efficacy Scale, Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale-Short Form, and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7. All measurement instruments demonstrated good reliability and validity in the present sample. The data were analyzed using a moderated model with SPSS 25.0 and the supplemental PROCESS macro 4.2.

Supervisor-student relationship was significantly negatively associated with anxiety (β = -0.364, p < 0.001), and mediation analyses indicated that general self-efficacy partially mediated this association (indirect effect = - 0.152, 95% CI = [- 0.192, - 0.115]). Moderated mediation analysis further revealed that attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help buffered the adverse effects of supervisor-student relationship on anxiety (β = 0.106, p < 0.001), as well as the correlation between supervisor-student relationship and general self-efficacy (β = -0.119, p < 0.001).

This study demonstrates that the quality of the supervisor-student relationship is closely associated with graduate students' anxiety and that this link operates partly through general self-efficacy. Positive attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help weakened the association between poor supervisor-student relationship and anxiety and mitigated the decline in general self-efficacy. These findings clarify how interpersonal and psychological factors jointly shape anxiety and suggest that strengthening supportive supervisor-student relationship and fostering favorable attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help may be beneficial for safeguarding the mental health of graduate students.