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Updated: Mar 24, 2026

Author Spotlight: Unveiling Mechanisms of Stress Resilience - Significant Findings, Advancements, and Future Research
Published on: December 15, 2023
From surviving to thriving: a process-ecological model of psychological resilience in doctoral students
Hang Zhao1, Jin Qiang Ma1, Cheng Zhang2
1College of Life Science, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui Province, China.
Background:
Doctoral students worldwide face considerable mental health challenges. Predominant research, often grounded in a pathological paradigm, has treated psychological resilience as a static trait, thereby overlooking its dynamic construction and ecological embeddedness within person-environment interactions.
Aim:
This study explores how doctoral students in high-pressure academic settings build psychological resilience through ongoing interaction with their ecosystems to transition from a state of survival to one of thriving.
Methods:
Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 24 doctoral students from Chinese universities. Data were analyzed through a process of constant comparative method and iterative coding.
Results:
The analysis yielded a process-ecological model of psychological resilience. This model identifies a four-stage, nonlinear developmental pathway: stress perception, cognitive restructuring, strategy integration, and value transcendence. This progression is powered by a dual-engine mechanism in which meaning-making provides direction and agency activation supplies motivation, all nested within and shaped by the dynamic interplay of individual, relational, and institutional ecosystems.
Conclusion:
The process-ecological model frames psychological resilience as a dynamic practice that co-evolves with academic identity formation. We advocate for a fundamental paradigm shift in the doctoral student support system-from individual-level remedial interventions toward the systematic cultivation of an enabling, ecological resilience system.
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