Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio High brain Stuff. I'm more in Volga Bam and today's episode is a classic from our erstwhile host of Christian Sagar. Some students are returning to school right now, and with COVID nineteen still raging in some areas, it's an extra stressful start to the year. But research has shown that stress and depression are a really common part of especially higher learning. Hey, brain Stuff, it's Christian Sagar here. We
all get sick of school, right. It's a common complaint for students at large. But when you hear a doctoral students say it, listen up. Mental health problems are more prevalent in PhD students than in the highly educated population in general, including highly educated employees and students, according to
recent research published in the journal Research Policy. The study highlights concerns about the influence that academic working conditions have on mental health, particularly among PhD students in a range of disciplines. The researchers surveyed three thousand, six hundred and fifty nine PhD students in Flanders, Belgium using a General Health questionnaire. This is a twelve question mental health screening tool that assesses a person's well being and potentially psychological
distress in light of mental health disorders. Now PhD programs in Europe. They're similar to those in the US in many ways, but there are some differences, including students having generally lower fees, shorter program terms, and a formal employment
contract with their universities. In Europe, the g h Q questions focused on symptoms of depression and social dysfunction, from constant strain and unhappiness to lack of concentration and losing self confidence, using the version of the g h Q that requires the presence of four symptoms to consider a person ill. The research has found that thirty two percent of the PhD students assessed were at risk of having
or developing a common psychiatric disorder, namely depression. Some of the more common feelings students reported were sleeping problems due to worries, and the inability to get over difficulties and
enjoy everyday activities. Thirty two percent is a notable amount considering data from the World Health Organization indicates that depression is the leading cause of ill health and disability in the world, and when the researchers compared the risk of psychiatric disorders and PhD students to that of the highly educated general population, highly educated employees, and high education students.
They discovered that it was significantly higher for PhD students two point four three, two point eight four, and one point eight five times, respectively. It's easy to think that the heavy academic workload causes all the pressure, but the researchers found that work environment and organizational policies also contribute
to psychiatric issues. Work family balance difficulties, high job demands, low job control, laser fair or passive leadership style and supervisors, and even a team culture of closed decision making, where all factors linked to potential mental health problems. On the other hand, mental health was better in PhD students who add advisors with an inspirational leadership style, desired an academic career,
and valued their degree outside of academia. The studies authors aren't saying that working in academia or pursuing a doctoral degree is definitively bad for your health, but their findings do indicate that the stressors of being a PhD student are more than a pain in the neck. If PhD students work conditions and career outlook are inadequate, their mental health may not the great. Today's episode was written by Shelley Dancy and produced by Tristan McNeil and Tyler Play.
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