Perceived Stress and Social Support Among Postgraduate Students: Implications for Well-Being and Engagement

Abstract

Perceived stress and social support affect student well-being and engagement. Drawing on the Job Demand and Resource (JD-R) theory, this study examined perceived stress and social support on well-being (life satisfaction) and work engagement among postgraduate students in Ghana. Based on a cross-sectional survey and voluntary sampling technique, data were collected from 205 students, using a self-report questionnaire. The PLS-SEM ver3 was used to test the uniqueness of the constructs and to analyse the hypothesised path models. The findings suggest that perceived stress, social support and well-being play a crucial role in predicting student work engagement. Student well-being partially mediated the relationship between social support and engagement but not between perceived stress and engagement. In conclusion, this present study has shown that social support is critical for a student; hence, there is the need to improve support systems in the universities.