Research on the self-efficacy and resilience of female graduate students in the era of artificial intelligence: analysis of the mechanism of mobile phone dependence, anxiety and mentoring relationship

Arch Womens Ment Health. 2025 Jan 7. doi: 10.1007/s00737-024-01547-w. Online ahead of print.

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the employment situation on the anxiety levels and research self-efficacy of graduate students, with a particular focus on female graduate students. The study aims to understand how the use of AIGC tools, which has become more frequent among those with lower research self-efficacy, affects anxiety and research resilience. Additionally, the research explores the role of the mentoring relationship in influencing the psychological and academic experiences of female graduate students.

Method: The research involved 1164 female master's and doctoral students and employed a moderated chain mediation model. This model was constructed based on social cognitive theory and Habermas interaction theory to analyze the relationships between research self-efficacy, mobile phone dependence, anxiety, and research resilience. Data was collected and empirically analyzed using SPSS 26.0, a statistical software, to examine the proposed relationships and the moderating effect of the mentoring relationship.

Result: The findings revealed that scientific research self-efficacy positively influences research resilience among female graduate students. Additionally, mobile phone dependence and anxiety were found to play a chain mediating role between self-efficacy and research resilience. The study also discovered that the mentoring relationship negatively moderated the effects of mobile phone dependence and anxiety on these students.

Conclusion: Based on the results, the study concludes that mentors and academic administrators should consider the research capabilities and interests of students when assigning research tasks. It is recommended to establish a flight instructor mentorship system that maximizes the strengths of each mentor to support students, especially those with suboptimal mentor-mentee relationships. This approach could help in providing positive guidance and improving the research resilience of female graduate students who are more susceptible to anxiety and mobile phone dependence.

Keywords: Anxiety; Female graduate students; Mobile phone dependence; Research resilience; Scientific research self-efficacy.