Abstract
BackgroundAlthough there are many benefits associated with working in academia, this career path often involves structural and organisational stressors that can be detrimental to wellbeing and increase susceptibility to psychological distress and mental ill health. This exploratory study examines experiences of work-related psychosocial stressors, psychological distress, and mental health diagnoses among mental health researchers.MethodsThis international cross-sectional study involved 207 mental health researchers who were post-graduate students or employed in research institutes or university settings. Work-related psychosocial stressors were measured by the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire III (COPSOQ III). Psychological distress was assessed using the Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). Thoughts of suicide was assessed using an adaptation of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). History of mental health diagnoses was assessed through a custom questionnaire. Pearson’s chi-square test of independence was used to compare mental health diagnoses and suicidal ideation across career stages. The association between work-related psychosocial stressors and psychological distress was conducted using multivariate linear regression controlling for key demographic, employment-related and mental health factors.ResultsDifferences in ‘demands at work’ and the ‘work-life balance’ domain were lowest among support staff (p = 0.01). Overall, 13.4% of respondents met the threshold for severe psychological distress, which was significantly higher in students compared to participants from other career stages (p = 0.01). Among the subgroup of participants who responded to the question on mental health diagnoses and suicidal ideation (n = 152), 54% reported a life-time mental health diagnosis and 23.7% reported suicidal ideation since their academic career commencement. After controlling for key covariates, the association between the ‘interpersonal relations and leadership’ domain and psychological distress was attenuated by the mental health covariates included in model 3 (β = −0.23, p = 0.07). The association between the remaining work-related psychosocial stressors and psychological distress remained significant.ConclusionsDespite working in the same environment, research support staff report experiencing significantly less psychosocial stressors compared to postgraduate students, early-middle career researchers and senior researchers. Future research that targets key modifiable stressors associated with psychological distress including work organization and job content, and work-life balance could improve the overall mental health and wellbeing of mental health researchers.
Highlights
The mental health and wellbeing of academic staff and students at higher education institutions has become a prominent concern in the research community [1, 2]
These work commitments regularly interfere with personal life [5, 6] and have been shown in previous meta-analyses to be associated with increased psychological distress, and poor mental health outcomes such as depression and anxiety and suicidal ideation across occupations [7,8,9]
Another study examined psychological distress [15] using the General Health Questionnaire, as well as job satisfaction, in a large sample of Australian university staff and found that 43% of academic staff scored above the cut-off [6], indicating increased risk of a possible mental health disorder [6, 16]. Together these findings suggest that the severity of psychological distress among academics, relative to the general population, may be related to modifiable work-related psychosocial stressors
Summary
The mental health and wellbeing of academic staff and students at higher education institutions (including universities) has become a prominent concern in the research community [1, 2]. A third of participants (34%) described accessing support from a mental health professional for depression or anxiety since working in academia [3] This proportion was higher for females (38%) and non-binary respondents (66%), than males (25%). There are many benefits associated with working in academia, this career path often involves structural and organisational stressors that can be detrimental to wellbeing and increase susceptibility to psychological distress and mental ill health. This exploratory study examines experiences of work-related psychosocial stressors, psychological distress, and mental health diagnoses among mental health researchers
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