4th article"Research Policy"

Research Policy

From the article I read the research is increasingly concerned about the potential impact of current working conditions on mental health, especially on PhD students. The purpose of this study is. First, we assessed the prevalence of mental health problems in representative samples of PhD students. Secondly, we compared PhD students with three other samples. Third, we assess organizational factors related to the role of PhD students predicting mental health status. The results indicate that PhD students are at risk of developing or developing general psychiatric disorders, particularly depression. Organizational policies are associated significantly with the prevalence of mental health problems. , job demands and job controls, boss leadership styles, team decision-making culture, and career perceptions beyond academia related to mental health issues.

From the perspective of evidence-based research policy management, systematic empirical data collection on the prevalence of mental health problems and related organizational policies is needed. Our study contributes to this need in four ways.

First, we provide empirical estimates for the prevalence of mental health problems in PhD students based on representative data covering all disciplines and all universities in Flanders, Belgium. Previous research on welfare and mental health in academia is usually limited to a particular discipline or university.

Secondly, by adopting the widely used GHQ-12, our study provides an easily accessible benchmark for future studies on mental health issues in the university sector thus strengthening the evidence base for accurate research policy management. Our study allows comparison of the prevalence of mental health problems with various groups inside and outside the university, whether they are work groups, student groups, or specific general population.

Third, our research empirically documents the relationship between organizational factors and mental health of PhD students. Compared with existing research on mental health in academia, our research focus is exclusive to students pursuing PhD degrees. Because task characteristics and working conditions for PhD students may be very different from other academic groups, subtle research that identifies specific organizational factors that predict a person's mental health is very important from a policy research perspective.

Fourth, our research extends previous research into mental health in this sector by considering bi-directionally working life conflicts and by adding forward career prospects data to a well-known set of organizational stresses found in the work environment. The findings have shown that given the bi-directionality of informative work-life conflicts from a management perspective, because the relative impact of these two predictors on mental health is very different.