The impact of self-esteem on the working alliance between students and supervisors and the perception of thesis work as stressful

Abstract

The aim of this study was to establish if there is a relationship between Self-Esteem, Network Orientation and the student-supervisor working alliance and if that working alliance in turn influences the perception of thesis work as being stressful. Student throughput and retention at universities is a worldwide problem creating issues for public reputation and financial viability. Successful completion of a thesis is an important part of a Masters degree, but has been identified as the most stressful element of the course. Understanding of the student-supervisor working-alliance may shed some light on ways in which universities may increase throughput and retention. Permission to conduct the study and ethics clearance was obtained from the Senate Research Committee of the University of the Western Cape and all relevant ethics principles were adhered to. An incentivized, online survey using established measures of Self-Esteem (Rosenberg’s Self Esteem Scale), Network Orientation (Network Orientation Scale), Working Alliance (The Working Alliance Inventory) and Perceived stress (The - Perceived Stress Scale) was conducted with a sample of 73masters-level students in the Community and Health Sciences Faculty of a Historically Disadvantaged University. The survey had a response rate of 24.5% (n=83/ 338) after 4 follow-up mailings. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to establish the predictive relationships between these variables. Self-esteem and Network Orientation were found to be reciprocally determining; and both could significantly predict working alliance as independent criterion variables. When combined, Self-Esteem dominated Network Orientation as a significant predictor of Working Alliance controlling for Race. The findings indicated that the perception of thesis work as stressful was found to be a function of Network Orientation controlling for Race, Working Alliance and Self-Esteem. More notably Network Orientation only had an influence on Perceived stress in the presence of Working Alliance that suggests a mediative relationship