Exploring the influence of factors causing stress among doctoral students by combining fuzzy DEMATEL-ANP with a triangular approach

Abstract

Besides the highest academic degree with lots of merits post that, getting a Ph.D. and the journey throughout the Ph.D. is not so easy due to which stress and trauma become common among Ph.D. research students. Stress among them can’t be overlooked and is also of major concern as it not only impacts their academic performances but also their mental health, and increases emotional exhaustion. There are many factors that are involved in causing stress among students. Doctoral students are more prone to it as it demands time, selfless effort, and much sacrifice. Moreover, they are in the stage where there are a lot of things going on that distract their minds or sometimes contradict their decisions be it related to their future or to their family, or be it from the institute side. This article mainly deals with analyzing the factors which cause stress, their effects on Ph.D. students, how these factors interrelate with each other, and their percentage share in causing this. Seven dimensions/factors are explored i.e., Institutional Issues, Personal Issues, Supervisor relations, Academic Issues, Fears, Mental Health, and Time Management, which overall depict the entire Doctoral journey. For the analysis of all these dimensions and for finding out the percentage share, a new hybrid method of MCDA (Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis) i.e., fuzzy DEMATEL-ANP with the triangular approach of responses i.e., Optimistic, Pessimistic & Most-Likely is proposed. Performance Analysis and Sensitivity Analysis are done to do the validity check and robustness of the proposed model and by doing this analysis, we identified that the most likely approach in the proposed model is most reliable than the Optimistic and Pessimistic approach due to its non-biased behavior and Supervisor feedback and Uncertain future are the most influential factors and change of city is the least influential one. Moreover, Academic Issues (Poor Writing Skills as well as Publication issues) together with Satisfaction with topic selection during course work period as well as the supervisor's feedback contributes more with weights of 8.1%, 7.7% & 7.5% respectively in causing stress to the doctoral students.