Advisor Selection, Advisor-Advisee Relationship, and Perceived Stress among Korean and US Doctoral Students

Abstract

In recent decades a prolific amount of research has been conducted into the topic of students’ relationships with supervising professors as key to doctoral experiences and success. Across different education systems, positive relationships between doctoral students and their advisors have been strongly associated with socialization into their departments and disciplines, as well as overall satisfaction with doctoral programs. While faculty-student relationship has been widely studied as one of the most important factors affecting student satisfaction and attrition, little is known about how the choice of advisor and how advisor-student relationships are related to stress. Data was collected by administrating a survey of students enrolled in doctoral programs from a public, research-intensive university in the Midwest of the United States and a public, research-oriented institution in South Korea. The findings indicate that US students were generally more positive about the advisor-advisee relationship than Korean students and both Korean and US doctoral students’ concerns were largely related to post-graduation options.