How does career calling influence doctoral students' academic resilience:a moderated serial mediation model

Academic resilience, as a core competency reflecting perseverance and positive adaptation in academic adversity, demonstrates doctoral students' enduring passion and vitality for academic careers. Grounded in Career Construction Theory and Ecological Systems Theory, this study aims to empirically test a theoretically derived moderated serial mediation model explaining how and under what conditions career calling fosters academic resilience among doctoral students. Data were collected from 865 doctoral students using the Career Calling Scale, Career Adapt-Abilities Scale-Short Form, Perceived Future Decent Work Scale, Academic Resilience Scale, and Decent Work Scale. Results showed that career calling was positively associated with academic resilience; career adaptability partially mediated the relationship between career calling and academic resilience; perceived future decent work partially mediated the relationship between career calling and academic resilience; career adaptability and perceived future decent work exerted a serial mediating effect in the impact of career calling on academic resilience; decent work positively moderated the relationships between career calling and academic resilience, career adaptability and academic resilience, and perceived future decent work and academic resilience. These findings extend theoretical understanding by integrating individual and contextual perspectives to reveal the multi-layered mechanisms of resilience formation in doctoral education, while offering actionable implications for enhancing calling education, fostering adaptability, and improving decent-work conditions. However, as the study relied on cross-sectional self-report data from Chinese doctoral students, future research should employ longitudinal and cross-cultural designs to strengthen causal inference and generalizability.