From “Doing” to “Being”: How Agency and Identity Mediate the Associations of Support and Stress with Doctoral Competence in Chinese Universities

Doctoral students’ academic competence is not only a key indicator of doctoral training quality but also a core outcome of their professional socialization. Drawing on the Job Demands–Resources (JD–R) framework, this study developed a dual-pathway model to examine how supervisor support and research stress were associated with doctoral students’ academic competence. In particular, it investigated the sequential indirect associations involving doctoral student agency and research role identity. Based on 436 valid responses from doctoral students across disciplines and years of study at three comprehensive universities in Beijing, China, structural equation modeling was used to examine the hypothesized associations. Results were consistent with the proposed dual-pathway model. Supervisor support was associated with academic competence through agency and research role identity. The largest estimated specific indirect association was observed through agency. Research stress was associated with lower academic competence primarily through reduced agency and, to a lesser extent, through the sequential association involving agency and research role identity. The integrated model also showed a significant sequential indirect association from support through stress, agency, and identity to competence. These findings are consistent with a resource-based rather than deficit-based interpretation of doctoral stress and highlight the possible role of agentic engagement in developing scholarly competence from external resources.