Latent profile of master-student communication and impact on supervisor-postgraduate relationship

To examine the structure of latent profiles of master-student communication, and to analyze the influence and moderating effect of the profiles on graduate students’ individual characteristics and supervisor-postgraduate relationship. The master-student communication questionnaire, supervisor-postgraduate relationship questionnaire, and individual characteristics questionnaire were used to survey 480 master’s degree students. Potential categories of master-student communication were explored using latent profile analysis, and the BCH method was used to analyze the effects and moderating effects of latent profiles on different dimensions of graduate students’ individual characteristics and the supervisor-postgraduate relationship. (1) Three potential categories of master-student communication existed, namely, “Low Master-Student Communication Type“(21.900%), “High Master-Student Communication Type“(22.700%), and “Middle Master-Student Communication Type“(55.400%); (2) Different profiles of master-student communication moderated the effects of different dimensions of individual characteristics of graduate student on the supervisor-postgraduate relationship. In the High and Low master-student communication groups, the more positive the mentor factor or the lower the level of relationship expectations, the better the supervisor-postgraduate relationship; in the Middle master-student communication group, the higher the level of the student factor, the lower the supervisor-postgraduate; and the difference between the different profile types was not significant in the effect of time and effort on the supervisor-postgraduate of graduate students.