{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]],"date-time":"2026-08-21T13:12:02Z","timestamp":1787317922446,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,3]],"date-time":"2026-03-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1772496000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>This study examines how supervisor\u2013group culture and age jointly shape Chinese doctoral students\u2019 experiences of academic stress, burnout, self-criticism, and depressive mood in shi-men\u2013based training systems. Drawing on semi-structured online interviews with 28 PhD students from three research-intensive universities in eastern and central China, we use reflexive thematic analysis to trace stress\u2013burnout trajectories across contrasting supervisor\u2013group configurations and two age groups (\u201cyounger,\u201d 24\u201328\u202fyears; \u201colder,\u201d 30+\u202fyears). We identify two group ecologies\u2014supportive\u2013competitive and laissez-faire\u2013loose\u2014and demonstrate that younger and older students inhabit these ecologies differently. In supportive\u2013competitive groups, younger students often move from stress to comparison-driven self-criticism and muted burnout. Older students, by contrast, describe stress leading to burnout, intensified self-attack, and depressive mood and related distress interpreted as \u201cfailing\u201d their life schedule. In laissez-faire\u2014loose groups, by contrast, younger students drift in uncertainty and identity doubt, whereas older students experience silent over-responsibility and resigned low mood. Across both ecologies, supervisors\u2019 responses to age concerns\u2014legitimizing delay, age-based urging, or silence\u2014operate as switches that amplify or buffer these chains. Conceptually, the study extends age-moderated stress\u2013burnout models by theorizing age as a relational life-course project enacted in supervisor\u2013group cultures. It also highlights the need for age-sensitive supervision and policy.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1794711","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,3]],"date-time":"2026-03-03T06:48:41Z","timestamp":1772520521000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Supervisor\u2013group culture, age and the stress\u2013burnout mechanism: a qualitative study of Chinese doctoral students"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Shuman","family":"Xie","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Education, Sichuan Normal University","place":["Chengdu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Siliang","family":"Yu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Education, Sichuan Normal University","place":["Chengdu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lijun","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Management, Shinawatra University","place":["Pathum Thani, Thailand"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1445","DOI":"10.1108\/IJEM-11-2022-0457","article-title":"A holistic model of resources to enhance the doctoral student's well-being","volume":"37","author":"Acharya","year":"2023","journal-title":"Int. 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