Null pointer Exception when injecting a rest-assured @Steps into spring-boot Test

Am new to springboot and am trying to integrate Integration Tests using Rest-assured to test my Rest-Api.

Am getting NPE when injecting @Steps into SpringBoot Test.I'm introducing a step class to improve on re-usability code.This test runs well if the step method is in the IT-class.I tried @Component annotation but it didn't work

Step class

import net.thucydides.core.annotations.Step;
import org.apache.http.HttpStatus;

import static com.jayway.restassured.RestAssured.when;

public class StaffSteps {
    protected  static String BASE_STAFF_URL = "/api/v1a/staff/";
    protected  static Staff staff;

    @Step
    public StaffSteps getStaffMemberById(String id){
        staff = when().get(BASE_STAFF_URL+id)
                .then().assertThat()
                .statusCode(HttpStatus.SC_OK)
                .extract()
                .as(Staff.class);
    return this;
    }
    @Step
    public Staff getStaff(){return staff;}
}

import net.thucydides.core.annotations.Steps;
import org.apache.http.HttpStatus;
import org.junit.Before;
import org.junit.Test;
import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
import org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner;

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;

import static com.jayway.restassured.RestAssured.when;

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
public class StaffControllerIT extends BaseTest {

    @Steps
    private StaffSteps staffSteps;

    @Before
    public void setUp(){
    }

    @Test
    public void getStaffMemberById(){
        String id ="ff8081817049a34e017049a379320000";
        Staff staff = staffSteps.getStaffMemberById(id).getStaff();

        System.err.println(staff);
    }

When i run this test, staffSteps is null.
Here is my dependency i used

	<dependency>
			<groupId>net.serenity-bdd</groupId>
			<artifactId>serenity-core</artifactId>
			<version>1.9.4</version>
			<scope>test</scope>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>io.rest-assured</groupId>
			<artifactId>rest-assured</artifactId>
			<version>3.0.0</version>
			<scope>test</scope>
		</dependency>

Please let me know if you need more information on this. Thanks

Solution using SpringRunner:

Annotate the steps with @Bean and @StepScope, and as a result, this object will share its lifetime with StepExecution.

public class StaffStepsConfig {
    protected  static String BASE_STAFF_URL = "/api/v1a/staff/";
    protected  static Staff staff;

    @Bean
    @StepScope
    public StaffSteps getStaffMemberById(String id){
        staff = when().get(BASE_STAFF_URL+id)
                .then().assertThat()
                .statusCode(HttpStatus.SC_OK)
                .extract()
                .as(Staff.class);
    return this;
    }

    @Bean
    @StepScope
    public Staff getStaff(){return staff;}
}

In the Test class, the spring-batch-test dependency provides a set of useful helper methods and listeners that can be used to configure the Spring Batch context during testing.

@RunWith(SpringRunner.class)
//@SpringBatchTest
//@SpringBootTest
@EnableAutoConfiguration
@ContextConfiguration(classes = { StaffStepsConfig.class })
@DirtiesContext(classMode = ClassMode.AFTER_CLASS)
public class StaffControllerIT extends BaseTest {
    @Autowired
    private StaffSteps staffSteps;

    @Before
    public void setUp(){
    }

    @Test
    public void getStaffMemberById(){
        String id ="ff8081817049a34e017049a379320000";
        Staff staff = staffSteps.getStaffMemberById(id).getStaff();

        System.err.println(staff);
    }
}

Note: This runner recognizes @SpringBootTest . I think the problem is in the way the test outcomes are generated. The steps are not being read by Serenity. Spring will inject @Autowired classes, and @serenity will inject @steps classes. I assume this happens because serenity and spring are creating components in different contexts .

required dependencies in your pom.xml:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-batch</artifactId>
    <version>2.1.9.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
    <version>2.1.9.RELEASE</version>
    <scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.batch</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-batch-test</artifactId>
    <version>4.2.0.RELEASE</version>
    <scope>test</scope>
</dependency>