ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1600533
The Effects of Mentor Support on Ed.D Students' Research Creativity: Mediating Roles of Research Self-efficacy and Learning Engagement
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
- 2School of Education, Xi 'an, Shaanxi Province, China, China
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Ed.D (Doctor of education) is a professional degree designed to cultivate highly specialized professionals in education, teaching, and educational leadership. Ed.D holds a crucial position within the higher education system, with its core mission being the cultivation of high-quality talent who possess strong research creativity. However, limited research has specifically addressed how to enhance the research creativity of Ed.D students in higher education. This study utilized a structural equation modeling approach to investigate the influence of mentor support on Ed.D students research creativity, with a focus on the chain mediating effects of research self-efficacy and learning engagement. A sample of 366 Chinese Ed.D students was surveyed using validated scales for mentor support, research self-efficacy, learning engagement, and research creativity. The findings indicate that mentor support is significantly positively correlated with the research creativity of Ed.D students; research self-efficacy and learning engagement serve as mediators in the relationship between mentor support and research creativity. Moreover, the average scores for Ed.D students’ research self-efficacy and learning engagement are comparatively low, with male students reporting higher levels of research self-efficacy and research creativity on average. These results provide empirical support and practical recommendations for enhancing the research ability of Ed.D students.
Keywords: Mentor support, Research self-efficacy, Learning engagement, research creativity, Doctor of Education
Received: 26 Mar 2025; Accepted: 29 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Miao, Zhao, Wang and Guo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lixing Zhao, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
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