How can we help PhD students cope with mental health issues and drop-out? An extensive analysis of discourse.

Abstract

There is a growing concern regarding the increase of the mental health problems among PhD students worldwide. This problem is worrying, and it remains a major issue for research teams and labs. However, the particularity of this environment has not been explored in consistent enough ways to provide a clear way forward for universities and health services to answer this problem. Therefore, we carried out a large online survey and collected 480 testimonies on health issues and work conditions from doctoral students and young doctors. Our aim was to identify levers and key factors for intervention. A lexicometric analysis of the discourse was carried out, using the Iramuteq package for R. Results highlight a need to intervene at different levels, in terms of instruction, prevention, care and follow-up to reduce mental health problems among PhD students. It also highlights the perceived importance of the university and feeling of belonging to a community as possible factors to reduce these problems and reduce drop out probability. More than anything, the study reveals that there are no differences in the discourse of doctoral students according to their field, which reveals the generality of these processes.

Le processus doctoral : entre souffrances et vulnérabilités

“…Peu d'études permettent d'apporter des éléments de réflexion 12 . Toutefois, les expériences empiriques parlent et les enquêtes sur la souffrance des étudiant•es 13 , ainsi que celle des doctorant•es aussi. Deux hypothèses peuvent être proposées qui mériteraient d'être explorées qualitativement.…”