Writing and Reading Self-efficacy in Graduate Students: Implications for Psychological Well-being

Abstract

In an effort to identify critical antecedents of mental health challenges in graduate education, recent research has examined graduate students’ self-efficacy beliefs as a motivational antecedent of their productivity, persistence, and well-being. Whereas graduate students’ self-efficacy concerning their scholarly writing activities has received increasing research attention in regards to psychological health, the well-being implications of graduate students’ self-efficacy for academic reading remains underexplored. The present study assessed both writing and reading self-efficacy in an international sample of graduate students (N = 851) in relation to critical well-being indicators including exhaustion, engagement, quitting intentions, program satisfaction, and imposter syndrome. Hierarchical linear regressions revealed writing self-efficacy to be a strong predictor across well-being outcomes, with a significant two-way interaction highlighting the combined benefits of writing and reading self-efficacy for imposter syndrome in graduate students. The present findings are novel in highlighting the well-being implications of both writing and reading self-efficacy for graduate students and support the expansion of graduate education programs aimed at promoting writing competencies to also address reading-related issues.