Trust in PhD Advisor Key to Positive Grad School Experience

The advisor-advisee relationship is central to most doctoral education models. Yet not all students trust their advisors. Danfei Hu, Jonathan E. Cook, and colleagues sought to examine the importance of this relationship to success and wellbeing in graduate school. The authors focused on the first year of graduate school, a time in which PhD students adapt to their role as scholars and in which large numbers of students drop out. In a prospective longitudinal study of 558 incoming PhD students, primarily in STEM fields, at three US research universities, the authors found that PhD students' academic motivation and well-being declined over the course of the year. However, those with greater-than-average trust in their advisors early in doctoral training reported greater motivation, including more interest in research and their field of study, higher self-efficacy, stronger academic belonging, greater academic self-control, and more optimism about their academic career. Those with greater-than-average trust in their advisors also reported greater well-being, including greater life satisfaction, less psychological distress, and less burnout. Moreover, PhD students with higher-than-average trust in their advisors submitted more manuscripts during their first year, submitted more applications for fellowships and grants, were awarded more fellowships and grants, reported that they had developed exciting research ideas more often, and experienced a greater sense of accomplishment. Importantly, trust in an advisor mattered just as much for students regardless of their gender, race, socioeconomic status or academic field. According to the authors, these longitudinal findings underscore a plausible causal role of advisor trust in shaping a successful and healthy PhD journey and suggest that strengthening trust between advisors and advisees could help PhD students thrive in their doctoral education.