A Longitudinal Study of Mental Wellbeing in Students in Aotearoa New Zealand Who Transitioned Into PhD Study

Frontiers in Psychology

Megan Gollop¹  Nicola Taylor¹  John A. Hunter²  Karen Tustin³  Richie Poulton⁴  Damian Scarf⁵  Taylor Winter⁶  Benjamin C. Riordan⁷  Jesse Kokaua⁸ 

[1] Children’s Issues Centre, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand;Department of Psychology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand;Department of Psychology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand;National Centre for Lifecourse Research, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand;Department of Psychology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand;National Centre for Lifecourse Research, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand;Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand;Department of Psychology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand;Office of Student Success, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand;Department of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand;Discipline of Addiction Medicine, Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia;Pacific Development Office, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand;Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand;

关键词: graduate student;    mental health;    wellbeing;    Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale;    longitudinal;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2021.659163

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Journal editorials, career features, and the popular press commonly talk of a graduate student mental health crisis. To date, studies on graduate student mental health have employed cross-sectional designs, limiting any causal conclusions regarding the relationship between entry into graduate study and mental health. Here, we draw on data from a longitudinal study of undergraduate students in Aotearoa New Zealand, allowing us to compare participants who did, and did not, transition into PhD study following the completion of their undergraduate degree. Using multilevel Bayesian regression, we identified a difference in mental wellbeing between those who entered PhD study and those who did not. This difference, however, was largely due to those not entering PhD study displaying an increase in mental wellbeing. Participants that entered PhD study displayed a small decrease in mental wellbeing, with the posterior distribution of the simple effect heavily overlapping zero. This latter finding was orders of magnitude smaller than one might expect based on previous cross-sectional research and provides an important message; that a marked drop in mental health is not an inevitable consequence of entering graduate study.

【 授权许可】

CC BY