The Influence of Social Support on Postgraduate Students' Psychological Well-being: Self-Esteem as a Mediator

Abstract

The study aimed to examine the impact of social support and self-esteem towards postgraduate students’ psychological well-being in Malaysian public universities and self-esteem as a mediator. In all, 335 postgraduate students from 13 public universities in Malaysia participated in this study. The present study conducted employing the quantitative research method using an online questionnaire. Convenient sampling was used to gather the data. Postgraduate students received the online questionnaire through postgraduate groups. The data were analysed using the PLS-SEM version 3.3.9. The validity and reliability of survey items, as well as the link between variables, were evaluated using the measurement model and structural model. The findings in this study indicate that social support and self-esteem have significant impact on psychological well-being. Besides, self-esteem plays partial mediation on social support and psychological well-being. The findings would be useful in helping university administrators, supervisors, counsellors, friends, and family members recognise the need to boost postgraduate students' psychological well-being and discover the solution to do so. For postgraduate students to be psychologically well-adjusted, their self-esteem and social support must be strengthened. To gain a more in-depth comprehending, a mixed methods technique may be adopted in future research. Furthermore, future study shall be able to compare the psychological health of local postgraduate students with international postgraduate students.