Supervisor–Group Culture, Age and the Stress–Burnout Mechanism: A Qualitative Study of Chinese Doctoral Students

Abstract

This study examines how supervisor–group culture and age jointly shape Chinese doctoral students' experiences of academic stress, burnout, self-criticism, and depressive mood in shi-men–based training systems. Drawing on semi-structured online interviews with 28 PhD students from three research-intensive universities in eastern and central China, we use reflexive thematic analysis to trace stress–burnout trajectories across contrasting supervisor–group configurations and two age groups ("younger," 24–28 years; "older," 30+ years). We identify two group ecologies—supportive–competitive and laissez-faire–loose—and demonstrate that younger and older students inhabit these ecologies differently. In supportive–competitive groups, younger students often move from stress to comparison-driven self-criticism and muted burnout. Older students, by contrast, describe stress leading to burnout, intensified self-attack, and depressive mood and related distress interpreted as "failing" their life schedule. In laissez-faire—loose groups, by contrast, younger students drift in uncertainty and identity doubt, whereas older students experience silent over-responsibility and resigned low mood. Across both ecologies, supervisors' responses to age concerns—legitimizing delay, age-based urging, or silence—operate as switches that amplify or buffer these chains. Conceptually, the study extends age-moderated stress–burnout models by theorizing age as a relational life-course project enacted in supervisor–group cultures. It also highlights the need for age-sensitive supervision and policy.