Environmental Demands, Appraised Stressors, Coping Strategies, and Academic Well-Being Among Doctoral Students: A Mixed-Methods Study

Abstract

Poor academic well-being challenges doctoral students. The best-fit structural model explaining academic well-being through environmental demands, appraised stressors, and coping strategies was determined using a convergent parallel mixed-methods design. The study addressed the limited empirical evidence on how these variables collectively shape doctoral students’ academic well-being in the Philippine context. It examined their levels, relationships, influence on academic well-being, and the best-fit structural model, while also exploring students’ challenges, coping strategies, and developed insights and values. Quantitative data from 400 doctoral students were collected through disproportionate stratified random sampling and analyzed using mean, standard deviation, Pearson r correlation, multiple regression, and structural equation modeling. Four adapted survey questionnaires measured the study variables. A single-case study was utilized for qualitative inquiry, with semi-structured interviews analyzed through thematic analysis. Methodological triangulation integrated the findings. Significant relationships were found among the variables, with the sequential mediation model emerging as the best fit. Environmental demands and coping strategies demonstrated weak positive significant correlations with academic well-being, while appraised stressors displayed a moderate positive significant correlation. Regression analysis confirmed the combined influence of the variables on academic well-being. Qualitative findings revealed role overload, emotional regulation, social and material support, and meaning-making sustaining academic functioning despite ongoing strain. Quantitative findings indicated very low levels of avoidance coping, whereas qualitative findings emphasized support-seeking and faith-based coping as more prominent responses to stress. The integrated findings supported and extended the Theory of Stress and Coping, showing that adaptive meaning-making, supportive relationships, and resilient coping processes strengthen academic well-being. Higher education institutions may strengthen mental health services, peer mentoring, flexible academic arrangements, writing support groups, and financial or technological assistance. Future researchers may investigate longitudinal pathways, variables like supervision and culture, why hindrance appraisal did not contribute to the model, and how spiritual factors sustain doctoral well-being.