Supportive supervision and Chinese postgraduate students’ core self-evaluations and academic creativity: A synergistic interactive model

We examined the interaction effect of supportive supervision and postgraduate students’ core self-evaluations on academic creativity, as well as the mediating role of creative self-efficacy in this effect. Participants were 348 Chinese postgraduate students. The results show that supportive supervision was positively associated with students’ academic creativity, and that creative self-efficacy mediated this association. Students’ core self-evaluations and supportive supervision had a synergistic interactive effect on creative self-efficacy, and creative self-efficacy partially mediated the interactive effect of supportive supervision and core self-evaluations on students’ academic creativity. The positive indirect effect of supportive supervision on students’ academic creativity through creative self-efficacy was stronger when core self-evaluations were highly positive, compared to when they were less positive. The implications of these findings are discussed.