Moderated Mediation Model of the Impact of Autonomous Motivation on Postgraduate Students' Creativity

• On the basis of self-determination theory, the theoretical model of autonomous motivation on postgraduate students’ creativity is proposed. • Autonomous motivation positively affects learning engagement, and learning engagement affects postgraduate students’ creativity and plays a mediating role in the relationship between Autonomous motivation and postgraduate students’ creativity. • Supervisor's innovation support positively moderates the influence of autonomous motivation on learning engagement. • Supervisor's innovation support positively moderates the effect of learning engagement on postgraduate students’ creativity. On the basis of self-determination theory, this study analyzes the influence mechanism of autonomous motivation (AM) on postgraduate students’ creativity (PSC), including the mediating effect of learning engagement (LE) and the moderating effect of supervisor's innovation support (SIS). Through a questionnaire survey, 542 questionnaires of postgraduate students were collected in China, and SPSS and MPLUS software were used for empirical analysis. Results showed that AM positively affects LE, and LE affects PSC and plays a mediating role in the relationship between AM and PSC. Furthermore, SIS positively moderates the influence of AM on LE. The higher the SIS is, the greater the influence of AM on LE will be. SIS positively moderates the effect of LE on PSC. The higher the SIS is, the greater the effect of LE on PSC will be. These findings not only enrich the literature on PSC, but also provides some suggestions for promoting PSC from the perspective of postgraduate student, supervisor, and university.