'Nature' explores why so many post-grads have bad mental health

[ATCclears]

'Nature' Explores Why So Many Postgrads Have Bad Mental Health - Slashdot

More than one-third of graduate students report being depressed

Read More

 

[Hop Sing]

Looks like the paper chase is taking its toll.

 

[justcuz]

First, sorry this is a biased shock and awe study with not a viable significant # of participants from United States population based:
quote: The survey's 2,279 respondents were mostly Ph.D. candidates (90 percent), representing 26 countries and 234 institutions.

Because work-life balance is associated with physical and mental well-being, and little is known about it in the graduate trainee population...

The authors say they were alarmed to discover that that among graduate students with anxiety or depression, half did not agree that their immediate mentors provided "real" mentorship (about one-third of both groups agreed with that statement). Responses were roughly similar to questions about whether advisers and PIs provided ample support and whether they positively impacted students' emotional mental well-being.

(Poster's comment: one of the crux's of the statement above is grad students are ill prepared to immediately 'teach' undergrads w/o appropriate exposure to viable teaching techniques, the grad students are expecting their PI has a written path for the new grad student to follow to complete their PhD, finally if the PI was treated badly by their PI, guess what-they have no background to change so they treat their PhD candidate's horribly because they do not know better.)

Social media is "flooded" with stories and testimonials... unquote
New study says graduate students' mental health is a "crisis"
the hyperbole about the study's finding is overwhelming.

 

[clearconscience]

I was reading a lot about mental illness and the corralation between the ease of society instant gratification, social media, and over-population.

There's a very interesting connection between those areas.

It's the millennial mentality.
Everyone gets a trophy.

 

[Oathkeeper1775]

Pedagogy K-graduate school; that's why.

 

[American123]

'Nature' Explores Why So Many Postgrads Have Bad Mental Health - Slashdot

More than one-third of graduate students report being depressed

As someone who is currently in grad school. I can tell you personally that the system is so heavily infected and indoctrinated with 'group think' and 'god complex' professors who think that because they have a PHD they can never be wrong and their opinion is beyond reproach, that it is an exercise in mental dexterity to return day after day, paying through the nose for the 'education' you are getting for a piece of paper to say you can attain a job that requires this piece of paper either explicitly by law or as a weed out process.

I can't speak for my peers, who I would think would be in paradise because their anti-american and anti-freedom rhetoric is constantly stated by the professors, but personally I can't wait till I can move beyond this stepping stone in my life. Higher education in general is a joke.

Another factor might be that as graduate students often the coursework involves some type of practical application of the content. In my case. I am paying about $40K for schooling before I will be done to also work more than 40 hours as an unpaid intern a week. Nothing makes you frown more than working full time and paying some school to allow you to work full time. lol...

 

[No_Regerts]

Puzzies.

 

[Colts4me]

To borrow what would pay for a house only to learn communism would be depressing. Add to that a future of working with the same kind of thinking you got in school and no doubt it will lead to drugs in the future... in my opinion.

 

[ATCclears]

I sent the article to my wife's friend (K) on the weekend. K is the Assistant Dean at a respected business school out East. K's comments back to me:


This generation definitely doesn't have the resilience gene. They fall apart at the slightest bump in the road – tears, hysterics if they don't like their grades, etc.

Not all, but I've been in higher ed for 32 years and have seen the decline in handling "life".

K

 

[Joe13]

Having to get a 4 year degree just to make $14-16 an hour would depress me as well...

Heck, it took me having 13+years of very high level troubleshooting skills to land a job that pays what I made at age 20. So the job market has changed a lot as well as the next gen kids in the last 20 years.


And a job is what most people going thru school want at the end.

 

[Colts4me]

Most of them should have gone for a vocation rather than higher education. A plumber makes better money and gets far more work. Add to that the biggest majority going to our universities are women, men have been pretty much left out.

 

[justcuz]

oh, personally know several who graduated, went into their respective PhD programs, quickly became disillusioned with their PI-quit but due to their particular skill set(s) walked out and negotiated starting salary of 60K and due to their work ethic were within 3 months were given 20-30% 'merit' raises!

The greatest fallacy is young adults current work ethic which they learned from their parents - both parents!

 

[Mark W.]

I would be depressed if I had gone to school that long inured that much debt only to make what I do know as a Dump truck driver for a paving co. I work on average the equal of 8 months out of a year. Last year I cleared 62K. When I feel stress at work I just empty the Air Horn on the Jack wagon in the car/pickup/other truck that caused it. Its a great pressure relief valve.

We have a couple young guys (under 25) who have just come on the job they will see close to 50K in their first year as a Dump Truck Driver. The new young guys we have on the crews will see close to 40-45K with very good benefits.

One of the companies we work with hired a young lady last year (they have a couple other women drivers) she had some good raised on a farm type truck driving experiance. They put her on a Production run (hauling material from one side of Salem to the other all day long) and she gained experiance handling the truck and trailer. This year they will have her start working paving and site development jobs. I am quite sure she is making close to what our newer drivers are (we are the highest paid co in the area) If she wants she will have a great job for a very long time. AND NO COLLEGE DEBT to get it.