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Published VersionCC BY-NC-ND V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
A study into the mental health of PhD students in Australia: investigating the determinants of depression, anxiety, and suicidality
Scientific Reports, Vol.14, pp.1-12
2024
Abstract
PhD students are particularly vulnerable to experiencing poor mental health. Mental health concerns that arise during their studies can not only affect their study progress but also have long-lasting impacts on their mental health after their studies. Extensive research has been conducted on the mental health of university students, but few studies have focused on PhD students and even fewer on PhD students in Australia. The present study investigated demographic, occupational, psychological, social, and relational determinants of mental health symptoms (depression, anxiety, and suicidality) in PhD students in Australia. PhD students enrolled in Australian universities were invited to complete an online survey. Results from regression analyses identified key determinants of mental health symptoms in our sample of PhD students (N = 302). In particular, higher levels of imposter thoughts, perfectionism discrepancy, and loneliness were strong predictors of depression, anxiety, and suicidality. These findings contribute to our understanding of the mental health of PhD students in Australia. Importantly, these findings inform areas of focus where potential strategies can be implemented to better protect the mental health of this population. For example, strategies that mitigate loneliness or foster effective, collaborative student-supervisor relationships.
Details
- Title
- A study into the mental health of PhD students in Australia: investigating the determinants of depression, anxiety, and suicidality
- Authors
- Lia Mills (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Centre for Human Factors and Systems ScienceGemma Read (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Centre for Human Factors and Systems ScienceJake E Bragg (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Centre for Human Factors and Systems ScienceBrendan T Hutchinson (Author) - Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamJolene A Cox (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Centre for Human Factors and Systems Science
- Publication details
- Scientific Reports, Vol.14, pp.1-12
- Publisher
- Nature Publishing Group
- Date published
- 2024
- DOI
- 10.1038/s41598-024-72661-z
- ISSN
- 2045-2322
- Copyright note
- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
- Grants
- Nationwide assessment of the mental health of PhD students in Australia, 0980028017, University of the Sunshine Coast (Australia, Sunshine Coast) - UniSC
- Organisation Unit
- Centre for Human Factors and Systems Science
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991063698402621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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