Masters students’ satisfaction with academic supervision and experiences of mental and emotional distress and wellbeing

Objective: This paper presents a nuanced exploration of the relationship between graduate supervision and students' wellbeing. Methods: This study is a two-part mixed-methods survey study. Part 1 is a quantitative examination of the impact of satisfaction on different measures of mental and emotional distress (stress, depressive feelings, burnout) and wellbeing (satisfaction with life, intrinsic motivation) of Masters students. Part 2 is a qualitative exploration of the elements to which students attribute their degree of satisfaction with supervision, providing insight into students' experiences of this important professional relationship. Results: The results show that satisfaction with supervision is related to student experiences of stress, burnout, satisfaction with life and intrinsic motivation, but not to depression symptoms. Conclusions: Supervision is related to many facets of graduate student mental health.