Why Fit in When You Were Born to Stand Out? The Role of Peer Support in Preventing and Mitigating Research-Related Stress among Doctoral Researchers

ABSTRACT

This paper probes the two fundamental questions: 1) how do research stressors, related to PhD research in general and to fieldwork in particular, transform into stress for doctoral researchers; and 2) how can peers assist in stress prevention and stress mitigation? The paper dissects the existing literature at conceptual, theoretical and practical levels. To provide a theoretical framework by which research stressors can be identified in doctoral researchers, we first combine the Demand-Resource (D-R) model with Conservation of Resource (COR) theory. We argue that this catalysed theoretical framework provides more effective primary mechanisms to identify stress in doctoral researchers. Secondly, drawing on Social Support Theory, we develop a peer support model of stress prevention and stress mitigation through four types of peer support: 1) informational; 2) emotional; 3) instrumental; and 4) social companionship. Thirdly, the socio-psychological mechanisms underlying Social Support Theory through which peer support can assist in pre- and post-stress situations are analysed to strengthen the explanatory power and practical usefulness of the proposed peer support model. The paper argues that researchers that actively develop a wider spread of peer support in accordance with our peer support model are more likely to cope with the research-related stress effectively during and after their projects and challenging fieldwork.

KEYWORDS:

• Peer support
• researcher stress
• secondary trauma
• social support
• stress prevention
• stress mitigation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Muhammad Sufyan

Muhammad Sufyan earned a Masters in Global Innovation management (GIM) at the Turku School of Economics and is currently a doctoral candidate at the Department of Marketing and International Business at the Turku School of Economics, University of Turku. For his PhD dissertation, he is researching the role of entrepreneurial cognition in internationalization of Diaspora International New Ventures (DINVs). DINVs are small and medium size entrepreneurial firms started by immigrants with global visions to sell products or services in the international market since their inception. He is a Lecturer (currently on sabbatical) at the Quaid-i-Azam School of Management Sciences (QASMS), Quaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan, where he has taught strategic management and strategic human resource management courses at both graduate and undergraduate levels.

Ahmad Ali Ghouri

Ahmad Ali Ghouri is an expert in international investment and commercial arbitration. As a practicing lawyer in Pakistan, he has extensive experience in commercial law and dispute resolution and regularly advises private and public organisations and government ministries. He teaches commercial law at the University of Sussex covering a wide range of subjects including international investment law, international commercial arbitration, corporate law and governance, and Islamic commercial law. Dr. Ghouri has published a number of leading works on international arbitration and dispute resolution. He is the author of Interaction and Conflict of Treaties in Investment Arbitration (Kluwer 2015) and Law and Practice of Foreign Arbitration and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards in Pakistan (Springer 2013). His research papers cover a range of important legal and policy interests including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, foreign investment policy; and the negotiation, conclusion and enforcement of treaties. In addition to his primary research interests, Dr. Ghouri is committed to raising public awareness of legal issues relating to Pakistan and the South Asian region. Dr. Ghouri is a member of the Commercial Law Reform, UK; Global Advisory Board of the Centre for International Investment and Commercial Arbitration, Pakistan, a Collegium Researcher at the Turku Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Turku, Finland; and a member of the Sustainable Market Actors for Responsible Trade (SMART), University of Oslo, Norway. He has been a faculty member in International Economic Law and Policy at the Harvard Law School’s Institute for Global Law and Policy.