Mental health of new and recent graduates during the university-to-work transition: a scoping review protocol

Abstract

IntroductionUniversity students face challenges when starting their careers and entering the workforce after tertiary education is associated with negative psychological outcomes. The planned scoping review will synthesise the literature on the impact of university-to-work transitions on the mental health of new and recent graduates. We will describe the characteristics and main findings of the studies, and will examine the variables associated with, and the theories used to explain, the relationship between transitions to work and graduates’ mental health.MethodsWe will search the following databases: Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, PSYCINFO, Social Sciences Citation Index, CINAHL Plus, Ovid MEDLINE and Google Scholar, to locate published and unpublished literature. The included studies will focus on undergraduate and postgraduate university students during planned or current university-to-work transitions, as well as early-career workers. We will include studies involving people who have left or are in their final year of study, are undergoing career transition preparation or have worked for no longer than 3 years since graduation. Studies from all countries, those published in English and since 2000, will be included. We will use a set of predefined search terms and we will extract studies using the EndNote V.20 reference management software. Two reviewers will screen and assess the identified studies using the Covidence software. Finally, we will present the data in a summary table and will qualitatively analyse the studies using thematic analysis.Ethics and disseminationOur scoping review does not require ethical approval. The scoping review’s findings will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journal articles and conference presentations, and will inform the development of training resources for different stakeholders as part of a wider research project.Trial registration numberThe study has been registered with the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/gw86x).

A scoping review to map the research on the mental health of students and graduates during their university-to-work transitions

“…13 A scoping review is appropriate because our cursory examination of the extant research base showed that it was small compared with literature on other topics and university-to-work transitions. 13 A systematic review would be too extensive of a methodology for such little research. 25 Stages 1 and 2: finding and choosing the studies Two tasks constituted the preliminary work for this scoping review.…”

“…28 29 In relation to the studies' contexts, those papers published in English since 2000 and from any geographical location qualified for inclusion in the review. 13 The scoping review includes two key concepts. The conceptualisation of mental health focuses on its negative dimensions-namely, mental ill health, psychological disorder, and psychological distress 13 .…”

“…13 The scoping review includes two key concepts. The conceptualisation of mental health focuses on its negative dimensions-namely, mental ill health, psychological disorder, and psychological distress 13 . This definition incorporates mental illnesses, including depression, anxiety, and personality disorders, and psycho-emotional states such as stress, worry, and sadness.…”

“…Mental health is a multifaceted term that is understood as a continuum. [13][14][15][16] At one end, there is psychological health, including facets such as 'positive feelings and positive functioning in life' (p. 208). 16 This review treats mental health as a negative phenomenonthe other side of the continuum-including mental ill health, psychological distress and mental illnesses.…”

“…Other academics and research collaborators were contacted to request any references that fit the review's inclusion criteria. 13 Finally, instead of two reviewers initially examining a select number of studies against the inclusion 35 criteria, the reviewers first met to discuss the inclusion and exclusion criteria before searching the databases. 13 The citations from the databases were transferred into EndNote V.20 and then into Covidence.…”