The DOI matches its Crossref record; 75 of the 80 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 4 of the 65 sources its claims cite were checked for support.
Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
Research policy observers are increasingly concerned about the potential impact of current academic working conditions on mental health, particularly in PhD students. The aim of the current study is threefold. First, we assess the prevalence of mental health problems in a representative sample of PhD students in Flanders, Belgium (N = 3659). Second, we compare PhD students to three other samples: (1) highly educated in the general population (N = 769); (2) highly educated employees (N = 592); and (3) higher education students (N = 333). Third, we assess those organizational factors relating to the role of PhD students that predict mental health status. Results based on 12 mental health symptoms (GHQ-12) showed that 32% of PhD students are at risk of having or developing a common psychiatric disorder, especially depression. This estimate was significantly higher than those obtained in the comparison groups. Organizational policies were significantly associated with the prevalence of mental health problems. Especially work-family interface, job demands and job control, the supervisor’s leadership style, team decision-making culture, and perception of a career outside academia are linked to mental health problems.
Overview
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Written from the paper’s full text.
TL;DR
In a representative Flemish sample of 3,659 PhD students, 32% screened at GHQ4+ for risk of a common psychiatric disorder, and 51% reported at least two GHQ-12 symptoms. Mental health problems were more prevalent than in three comparison groups and were linked to work-family conflict, job demands and control, supervisor leadership, team decision-making, and career perceptions.
Key findings
- Prevalence among PhD students was 51% for GHQ2+, 40% for GHQ3+, and 32% for GHQ4+. The most common symptoms included constant strain, unhappiness/depression, sleep loss from worry, difficulty overcoming problems, and reduced enjoyment of daily activities.
- Compared with the highly educated general population, PhD students had adjusted risk ratios of 1.90 for GHQ2+, 2.26 for GHQ3+, and 2.43 for GHQ4+. Compared with highly educated employees, the corresponding ratios were 2.02, 2.56, and 2.84; compared with higher education students, they were 1.53, 1.63, and 1.85.
- Work-family conflict was the strongest predictor in relative-weight terms (34.1% for GHQ2+ and 29.8% for GHQ4+). Job demands had ORs of 1.896 for GHQ2+ and 1.651 for GHQ4+; job control had ORs of 0.784 and 0.631; family-work conflict had ORs of 1.206 and 1.296; work-family conflict had ORs of 1.521 and 1.522.
- Inspirational supervisor leadership was associated with lower odds (OR 0.868 for GHQ2+, 0.908 for GHQ4+), laissez-faire leadership with higher distress odds (OR 1.084 for GHQ2+), and closed team decision-making with higher GHQ4+ odds (OR 1.205). No discipline differences were found; executing-phase students had lower odds than initiating-phase students, and positive career perceptions inside or outside academia were associated with better mental health.
Methods
- Cross-sectional 2013 web survey of junior researchers at all Flemish universities; the analytic sample was 3,659 PhD students from a total population of 12,191, with a 33% response rate. Selective non-response analyses showed slightly more women, younger respondents, social scientists, and Belgians than in the total population.
- Comparison groups came from Belgian Health Interview Surveys: highly educated general population (N = 769), highly educated employees (N = 592), and higher education students (N = 333, pooled across 2001, 2004, 2008, and 2013).
- Mental health was measured with the GHQ-12 using GHQ2+, GHQ3+, and GHQ4+ thresholds. Analyses included adjusted risk ratios controlling for age and gender, and logistic regressions producing odds ratios, relative weights, and Nagelkerke R² values (0.202 for GHQ2+ and 0.204 for GHQ4+), with controls for gender, age, partner, and children.
Limitations
- The paper states that the cross-sectional design prevents causal conclusions, including possible self-selection or the alternative that distressed PhD students evaluate their environment more negatively.
- The paper also states that findings may be specific to Flanders, that financial conditions differ from countries where PhD students face more financial worries, and that GHQ4+ is a probabilistic screening measure rather than a clinical diagnosis.
- Evident from the text: the 33% response rate and selective non-response may affect prevalence estimates; all mental health measures are self-reported; and the higher education student comparison group was pooled across multiple survey years.
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Claims the paper makes
4 of 65 cited sources checked · 0 supported · 0 flagged · accuracy not yet measured
The cited sources support only part of this claim — read each source’s verdict below.
In the paper
“Studies almost unanimously report a consistent link between high job demands and emotional exhaustion and depressive feelings (e.g.De Lange et al., 2004).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 2.3.1. Work context Work roles and workload demands, job control, support by peers or supervisors, and job insecurity are the most frequently examined characteristics of the work context (e.g.WHO, 2010).Studies almost unanimously report a consistent link between high job demands and emotional exhaustion and depressive feelings (e.g.De Lange et al., 2004).While PhD students clearly have different roles, tasks and responsibilities to fulfill than regular employees do, we believe that there are a series of common psychological characteristics that make it useful to study PhD students' roles through the lens of the organizational context in which they perform their study and research work.For reasons of clarity, we use the commonly accepted terminology in occupational health psychology, with the clear understanding that work-related aspects, such as job demands, refer to the demands experienced by students in their specific study and research roles.Job demands are those physical, social or organizational aspects of the job that require sustained physical or mental effort.Job control on the other hand, refers to control over the work environment, more specifically over the pace of work, the timing of breaks, or the use of skills (Karasek and Theorell, 1990).Most, but not all, occupational health studies find significant emotional costs when job control is low (De Lange et al., 2004;Vanroelen et al., 2009).Existing research on occupational stress in university staff has consistently found work load to be one of the main causes of stress (e.g.Gillespie et al., 2001;Winefield et al., 2003;Kinman, 2001;Kinman et al., 2006;Tytherleigh et al., 2005;Biron et al., 2008;Sun et al., 2011;Mark and Smith, 2012;Boyd et al., 2011). For PhD students, the balance between demands and control might be different across scientific disciplines as it entails differences in academic practice.Writing a doctoral dissertation in the natural sciences may entail working as part of a large team within a specific well-defined project, and operating with pre-defined, transparent quantitative publication criteria (Larivière, 2012).For PhD students in the humanities and social sciences, establishing one's own research idea (and thus often working in isolation) may constitute more of a challenge in terms of perseverance, given also the lack of consensus over the quality criteria in these fields (Long and Fox, 1995).
What the sources say
- Partly supportedcites De Lange et al., 2004 sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
The Correlational analyses section reports that higher job demands predicted increases in both depression and emotional exhaustion over time. The paper therefore supports the link, but its findings do not establish the claim that studies report it almost unanimously; the Introduction describes mixed support for the broader high-strain hypothesis. The supplied passages give no page numbers. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Strength:boosted· not yet calibratedCausal:correlational· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes? Load-bearing: unclear✓ Based: passes- Partly supported
The cited sources support only part of this claim — read each source’s verdict below.
In the paper
“Low support at work has long been found to affect levels of anxiety, emotional exhaustion, job tension and job satisfaction (e.g.De Lange et al., 2004;Vanroelen et al., 2009).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 2.3.1. Work context Work roles and workload demands, job control, support by peers or supervisors, and job insecurity are the most frequently examined characteristics of the work context (e.g.WHO, 2010).Studies almost unanimously report a consistent link between high job demands and emotional exhaustion and depressive feelings (e.g.De Lange et al., 2004).While PhD students clearly have different roles, tasks and responsibilities to fulfill than regular employees do, we believe that there are a series of common psychological characteristics that make it useful to study PhD students' roles through the lens of the organizational context in which they perform their study and research work.For reasons of clarity, we use the commonly accepted terminology in occupational health psychology, with the clear understanding that work-related aspects, such as job demands, refer to the demands experienced by students in their specific study and research roles.Job demands are those physical, social or organizational aspects of the job that require sustained physical or mental effort.Job control on the other hand, refers to control over the work environment, more specifically over the pace of work, the timing of breaks, or the use of skills (Karasek and Theorell, 1990).Most, but not all, occupational health studies find significant emotional costs when job control is low (De Lange et al., 2004;Vanroelen et al., 2009).Existing research on occupational stress in university staff has consistently found work load to be one of the main causes of stress (e.g.Gillespie et al., 2001;Winefield et al., 2003;Kinman, 2001;Kinman et al., 2006;Tytherleigh et al., 2005;Biron et al., 2008;Sun et al., 2011;Mark and Smith, 2012;Boyd et al., 2011). For PhD students, the balance between demands and control might be different across scientific disciplines as it entails differences in academic practice.Writing a doctoral dissertation in the natural sciences may entail working as part of a large team within a specific well-defined project, and operating with pre-defined, transparent quantitative publication criteria (Larivière, 2012).For PhD students in the humanities and social sciences, establishing one's own research idea (and thus often working in isolation) may constitute more of a challenge in terms of perseverance, given also the lack of consensus over the quality criteria in these fields (Long and Fox, 1995).
What the sources say
- Partly supportedcites De Lange et al., 2004 sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
The Correlational analyses section (page unavailable) reports that greater supervisor support was associated with lower emotional exhaustion over time. It does not report that support affected anxiety or job tension; for job satisfaction, the reported direction runs from satisfaction to later supervisor support, not the reverse. (LLM, conf=0.88)
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Vanroelen et al., 2009 source
Strength:boosted· not yet calibratedCausal:direct· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes? Load-bearing: unclear✓ Based: passes- Partly supported
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Especially workfamily interface, job demands and job control, the supervisor's leadership style, team decision-making culture, and perception of a career outside academia are linked to mental health problems.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > Abstract
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passes- Rests on an assumption: The sample of 3659 PhD students in Flanders, Belgium is representative of the population of PhD students in Flanders.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Especially workfamily interface, job demands and job control, the supervisor's leadership style, team decision-making culture, and perception of a career outside academia are linked to mental health problems.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > Abstract
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passes- Rests on an assumption: The sample of 3659 PhD students in Flanders, Belgium is representative of the population of PhD students in Flanders.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Especially workfamily interface, job demands and job control, the supervisor's leadership style, team decision-making culture, and perception of a career outside academia are linked to mental health problems.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > Abstract
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passes- Rests on an assumption: The sample of 3659 PhD students in Flanders, Belgium is representative of the population of PhD students in Flanders.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“This estimate was significantly higher than those obtained in the comparison groups.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > Abstract
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passes- Rests on an assumption: The sample of 3659 PhD students in Flanders, Belgium is representative of the population of PhD students in Flanders.
- Rests on an assumption: The comparison groups (highly educated general population, highly educated employees, higher education students) are comparable to PhD students for the purpose of comparing mental health prevalence.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Organizational policies were significantly associated with the prevalence of mental health problems.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > Abstract
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passes- Rests on an assumption: The sample of 3659 PhD students in Flanders, Belgium is representative of the population of PhD students in Flanders.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Especially workfamily interface, job demands and job control, the supervisor's leadership style, team decision-making culture, and perception of a career outside academia are linked to mental health problems.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > Abstract
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passes- Rests on an assumption: The sample of 3659 PhD students in Flanders, Belgium is representative of the population of PhD students in Flanders.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Especially workfamily interface, job demands and job control, the supervisor's leadership style, team decision-making culture, and perception of a career outside academia are linked to mental health problems.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > Abstract
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passes- Rests on an assumption: The sample of 3659 PhD students in Flanders, Belgium is representative of the population of PhD students in Flanders.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Especially workfamily interface, job demands and job control, the supervisor's leadership style, team decision-making culture, and perception of a career outside academia are linked to mental health problems.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > Abstract
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passes- Rests on an assumption: The sample of 3659 PhD students in Flanders, Belgium is representative of the population of PhD students in Flanders.
- Probably not a substantial claim. 45
- It may state two separate claims as one. 30
The cited sources support only part of this claim — read each source’s verdict below.
In the paper
“Most, but not all, occupational health studies find significant emotional costs when job control is low (De Lange et al., 2004;Vanroelen et al., 2009).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 2.3.1. Work context Work roles and workload demands, job control, support by peers or supervisors, and job insecurity are the most frequently examined characteristics of the work context (e.g.WHO, 2010).Studies almost unanimously report a consistent link between high job demands and emotional exhaustion and depressive feelings (e.g.De Lange et al., 2004).While PhD students clearly have different roles, tasks and responsibilities to fulfill than regular employees do, we believe that there are a series of common psychological characteristics that make it useful to study PhD students' roles through the lens of the organizational context in which they perform their study and research work.For reasons of clarity, we use the commonly accepted terminology in occupational health psychology, with the clear understanding that work-related aspects, such as job demands, refer to the demands experienced by students in their specific study and research roles.Job demands are those physical, social or organizational aspects of the job that require sustained physical or mental effort.Job control on the other hand, refers to control over the work environment, more specifically over the pace of work, the timing of breaks, or the use of skills (Karasek and Theorell, 1990).Most, but not all, occupational health studies find significant emotional costs when job control is low (De Lange et al., 2004;Vanroelen et al., 2009).Existing research on occupational stress in university staff has consistently found work load to be one of the main causes of stress (e.g.Gillespie et al., 2001;Winefield et al., 2003;Kinman, 2001;Kinman et al., 2006;Tytherleigh et al., 2005;Biron et al., 2008;Sun et al., 2011;Mark and Smith, 2012;Boyd et al., 2011). For PhD students, the balance between demands and control might be different across scientific disciplines as it entails differences in academic practice.Writing a doctoral dissertation in the natural sciences may entail working as part of a large team within a specific well-defined project, and operating with pre-defined, transparent quantitative publication criteria (Larivière, 2012).For PhD students in the humanities and social sciences, establishing one's own research idea (and thus often working in isolation) may constitute more of a challenge in terms of perseverance, given also the lack of consensus over the quality criteria in these fields (Long and Fox, 1995).
What the sources say
- Partly supportedcites De Lange et al., 2004 sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
The Introduction (page unavailable) says studies of high-strain jobs have yielded mixed support for adverse health effects, but it does not say most studies find significant effects or isolate low job control from high demands and low support. The Correlational analyses section (page unavailable) links greater job control to greater subsequent job satisfaction, not to lower depression or emotional exhaustion. (LLM, conf=0.83)
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Vanroelen et al., 2009 source
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedCausal:correlational· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Partly supported
The cited sources support only part of this claim — read each source’s verdict below.
In the paper
“As prior research has shown that both employment frustration (not finding the work one wants) and reward frustration (e.g.poor promotion prospects) have an impact on self-reported mental health (e.g.Castro et al., 2010), the current study will also examine the career prospects of PhD students.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 2.3.1. Work context Work roles and workload demands, job control, support by peers or supervisors, and job insecurity are the most frequently examined characteristics of the work context (e.g.WHO, 2010).Studies almost unanimously report a consistent link between high job demands and emotional exhaustion and depressive feelings (e.g.De Lange et al., 2004).While PhD students clearly have different roles, tasks and responsibilities to fulfill than regular employees do, we believe that there are a series of common psychological characteristics that make it useful to study PhD students' roles through the lens of the organizational context in which they perform their study and research work.For reasons of clarity, we use the commonly accepted terminology in occupational health psychology, with the clear understanding that work-related aspects, such as job demands, refer to the demands experienced by students in their specific study and research roles.Job demands are those physical, social or organizational aspects of the job that require sustained physical or mental effort.Job control on the other hand, refers to control over the work environment, more specifically over the pace of work, the timing of breaks, or the use of skills (Karasek and Theorell, 1990).Most, but not all, occupational health studies find significant emotional costs when job control is low (De Lange et al., 2004;Vanroelen et al., 2009).Existing research on occupational stress in university staff has consistently found work load to be one of the main causes of stress (e.g.Gillespie et al., 2001;Winefield et al., 2003;Kinman, 2001;Kinman et al., 2006;Tytherleigh et al., 2005;Biron et al., 2008;Sun et al., 2011;Mark and Smith, 2012;Boyd et al., 2011). For PhD students, the balance between demands and control might be different across scientific disciplines as it entails differences in academic practice.Writing a doctoral dissertation in the natural sciences may entail working as part of a large team within a specific well-defined project, and operating with pre-defined, transparent quantitative publication criteria (Larivière, 2012).For PhD students in the humanities and social sciences, establishing one's own research idea (and thus often working in isolation) may constitute more of a challenge in terms of perseverance, given also the lack of consensus over the quality criteria in these fields (Long and Fox, 1995).
What the sources say
- Partly supportedcites Castro et al., 2010 sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
The Results and Discussion report an association between employment frustration and lower self-rated mental health among Asian immigrants. The Measures and Limitations sections show that promotion prospects were not measured separately as “reward frustration”; the paper also says its cross-sectional data cannot establish a causal impact. Page numbers were not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.
- Partly supported
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Results based on 12 mental health symptoms (GHQ-12) showed that 32% of PhD students are at risk of having or developing a common psychiatric disorder, especially depression.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > Abstract
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: The sample of 3659 PhD students in Flanders, Belgium is representative of the population of PhD students in Flanders.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“As shown in Fig. 1, the number of faculty in Flanders has only marginally increased over the past 15 years, leading to an increased ratio of 3.2 PhD students per faculty member in 2014.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 2.1. PhD students in Flanders, Belgium
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedCausal:direct· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes? Load-bearing: unclear✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The association with GHQ4+ was in the same direction, but not statistically significant.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 4. Results
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedCausal:correlational· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes? Load-bearing: unclear✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Most important was work-family conflict (% RW = 34.1% and 29.8% for GHQ2+ and GHQ4+, respectively), and this was more important than family-work conflict (% RW = 10.2% and 12.2% for GHQ2+ and GHQ4+, respectively).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 4. Results
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
A claim is checked only against the cited paper’s full text, never its abstract, and none is available for its sources.
In the paper
“The value of the Nagelkerke R2 (pseudo R2) was 0.202 for the GHQ2+ and 0.204 for the GHQ4+, which were reasonable effect sizes for psychological research in the workplace (Bosco et al., 2015;Landry et al., 2006).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 4. Results
What the sources say
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Most prevalent are feelings of being under constant strain, unhappiness and depression, sleeping problems due to worries, inability to overcome difficulties and not being able to enjoy day-to-day activities.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 5.2. Summary of main findings
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes? Load-bearing: unclear✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The analyses revealed significant relationships with psychological distress (GHQ2+) and with the risk of having or developing a common psychiatric disorder (GHQ4+) in case of high job demands and low job control.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 4. Results
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Comparing PhD students with higher education students, we observed that differences in mental health were smaller than for the other comparison groups, but the prevalence remained higher in PhD students.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 4. Results
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes? Load-bearing: unclear✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Other studies, especially European and Australian ones, have tended to utilize samples of university employees in general and mostly reported aggregate findings (Kinman, 2008), making it difficult to draw fine-grained conclusions on the mental health of PhD students as a separate category.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > Differences
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Kinman, 2008
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
- Not matched
A claim is checked only against the cited paper’s full text, never its abstract, and none is available for its sources.
In the paper
“Existing research on occupational stress in university staff has consistently found work load to be one of the main causes of stress (e.g.Gillespie et al., 2001;Winefield et al., 2003;Kinman, 2001;Kinman et al., 2006;Tytherleigh et al., 2005;Biron et al., 2008;Sun et al., 2011;Mark and Smith, 2012;Boyd et al., 2011).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 2.3.1. Work context Work roles and workload demands, job control, support by peers or supervisors, and job insecurity are the most frequently examined characteristics of the work context (e.g.WHO, 2010).Studies almost unanimously report a consistent link between high job demands and emotional exhaustion and depressive feelings (e.g.De Lange et al., 2004).While PhD students clearly have different roles, tasks and responsibilities to fulfill than regular employees do, we believe that there are a series of common psychological characteristics that make it useful to study PhD students' roles through the lens of the organizational context in which they perform their study and research work.For reasons of clarity, we use the commonly accepted terminology in occupational health psychology, with the clear understanding that work-related aspects, such as job demands, refer to the demands experienced by students in their specific study and research roles.Job demands are those physical, social or organizational aspects of the job that require sustained physical or mental effort.Job control on the other hand, refers to control over the work environment, more specifically over the pace of work, the timing of breaks, or the use of skills (Karasek and Theorell, 1990).Most, but not all, occupational health studies find significant emotional costs when job control is low (De Lange et al., 2004;Vanroelen et al., 2009).Existing research on occupational stress in university staff has consistently found work load to be one of the main causes of stress (e.g.Gillespie et al., 2001;Winefield et al., 2003;Kinman, 2001;Kinman et al., 2006;Tytherleigh et al., 2005;Biron et al., 2008;Sun et al., 2011;Mark and Smith, 2012;Boyd et al., 2011). For PhD students, the balance between demands and control might be different across scientific disciplines as it entails differences in academic practice.Writing a doctoral dissertation in the natural sciences may entail working as part of a large team within a specific well-defined project, and operating with pre-defined, transparent quantitative publication criteria (Larivière, 2012).For PhD students in the humanities and social sciences, establishing one's own research idea (and thus often working in isolation) may constitute more of a challenge in terms of perseverance, given also the lack of consensus over the quality criteria in these fields (Long and Fox, 1995).
What the sources say
Strength:boosted· not yet calibratedCausal:direct· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
A claim is checked only against the cited paper’s full text, never its abstract, and none is available for its sources.
In the paper
“Second, the number of published studies focusing on mental health of PhD students is limited (El-Ghoroury et al., 2012), as most studies have focused on the undergraduate level (Peluso et al., 2011).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > Differences
What the sources say
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Given the current lack of an empirical basis for mental health concerns and solutions, the current study has three aims.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 1.2. Why is the mental health of PhD students important for research policy?
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✗ Based: failsProbably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“The most widely used measurement instrument in occupational health research, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), enables researchers to tap into both psychological distress and depression (Goldberg, 1972;Goldberg and Williams, 1988).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > Differences
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Goldberg, 1972
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Goldberg and Williams, 1988
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Not matched
In the paper
“Several studies have found evidence for the role of task and relational conflict on employee well-being (e.g.Martinez-Corts et al., 2015).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 2.3.2. Organizational context
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Martinez-Corts et al., 2015 source
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedCausal:correlational· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
In the paper
“Job demands and job control were assessed using the Dutch VBBA-quality of labor questionnaire (Vanroelen et al., 2009).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 3.3.2. Work context
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Vanroelen et al., 2009 source
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In the paper
“Flanders has seen a rise in PhD production that is substantially larger than in other EU countries: in the academic year 2013-2014, a total of 1724 new doctorates were awarded, which is an increase of 71% compared to 2004-2005(ECOOM, 2015)).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 2.1. PhD students in Flanders, Belgium
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites ECOOM, 2015
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
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- Not matched
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Internal consistency was 0.85 for the job demands scale and 0.88 for the job control scale.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 3.3.2. Work context
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In the paper
“In their cross discipline study in nine US research universities, Fox et al. (2011) show that it is important to consider both the conflict of work with family life and the conflict of family life with work.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 2.3.2. Organizational context
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Fox et al., 2011 source
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In the paper
“In a Finnish study of 383 PhD students, Stubb et al. (2011) found that 44% reported the academic community as a source of empowerment, enthusiasm and inspiration, while 56% experienced it as a source of burden.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 2.3.1. Work context Work roles and workload demands, job control, support by peers or supervisors, and job insecurity are the most frequently examined characteristics of the work context (e.g.WHO, 2010).Studies almost unanimously report a consistent link between high job demands and emotional exhaustion and depressive feelings (e.g.De Lange et al., 2004).While PhD students clearly have different roles, tasks and responsibilities to fulfill than regular employees do, we believe that there are a series of common psychological characteristics that make it useful to study PhD students' roles through the lens of the organizational context in which they perform their study and research work.For reasons of clarity, we use the commonly accepted terminology in occupational health psychology, with the clear understanding that work-related aspects, such as job demands, refer to the demands experienced by students in their specific study and research roles.Job demands are those physical, social or organizational aspects of the job that require sustained physical or mental effort.Job control on the other hand, refers to control over the work environment, more specifically over the pace of work, the timing of breaks, or the use of skills (Karasek and Theorell, 1990).Most, but not all, occupational health studies find significant emotional costs when job control is low (De Lange et al., 2004;Vanroelen et al., 2009).Existing research on occupational stress in university staff has consistently found work load to be one of the main causes of stress (e.g.Gillespie et al., 2001;Winefield et al., 2003;Kinman, 2001;Kinman et al., 2006;Tytherleigh et al., 2005;Biron et al., 2008;Sun et al., 2011;Mark and Smith, 2012;Boyd et al., 2011). For PhD students, the balance between demands and control might be different across scientific disciplines as it entails differences in academic practice.Writing a doctoral dissertation in the natural sciences may entail working as part of a large team within a specific well-defined project, and operating with pre-defined, transparent quantitative publication criteria (Larivière, 2012).For PhD students in the humanities and social sciences, establishing one's own research idea (and thus often working in isolation) may constitute more of a challenge in terms of perseverance, given also the lack of consensus over the quality criteria in these fields (Long and Fox, 1995).
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Stubb et al. (2011) source
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In the paper
“The GHQ is a screening instrument to identify psychological distress and potential cases of common psychiatric disorder (especially depression), leaving the task of diagnosing actual disorder to a psychiatric interview (McDowell, 2006).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 3.3.1. Mental health problems Mental health problems were measured using the 12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) (Goldberg, 1972;Goldberg and Williams, 1988).The GHQ is a screening instrument to identify psychological distress and potential cases of common psychiatric disorder (especially depression), leaving the task of diagnosing actual disorder to a psychiatric interview (McDowell, 2006).The GHQ is the most frequently used scale worldwide to tap into psychological well-being (e.g.Boyd et al., 2011).The internal consistency of the GHQ-12 was 0.88 in Sample 1 and 0.87 in Sample 2. The 12 GHQ items are presented in Table 3. GHQ items explore the respondent's experience in recent weeks compared to his or her usual experience.Response categories are item-specific but all responses are given on 4-point Likert-type scales.We adopt the GHQ scoring method, which uses a bimodal 0-0-1-1 scheme (to score subsequent response categories), conceiving the respondent's total number of 1 scores over the 12 items as an indication of the number of symptoms experienced.In order to determine that a person has a mental health problem, (s)he should experience a minimum number of symptoms.The literature reports substantial variation in the minimum number of symptoms to be considered (Goldberg et al., 1997).In the current study we opt for the GHQ2+ (presence of at least 2 symptoms), indicating psychological distress.We also assess the GHQ4+ (presence of at least 4 symptoms), indicating the risk of having or developing a common psychiatric disorder (especially depression) (Goldberg, 1972;Goldberg and Williams, 1988).A worldwide study on mental health by the World Health Organization suggests using the GHQ4+ if the mean GHQ score in the sample is higher than 2.70 (Goldberg et al., 1998).In Sample 1, the mean GHQ score is 2.84.However, for reasons of comparison with other studies on mental health in the university sector (see Table 2), we also include the GHQ3+ (presence of at least 3 symptoms) when calculating prevalence. Preliminary multigroup confirmatory factor analyses across both samples in our study attested to the stability of the measurement model underlying the GHQ.
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites McDowell, 2006
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
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- Not matched
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“There were 4069 participants (response rate of 33%).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 3.1. Sample 1: PhD students
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedn = 4,069Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Cronbach's alphas were 0.93, 0.78 and 0.74 for the three leadership styles, respectively.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 3.3.2. Work context
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What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Preliminary analyses showed that pooling of HIS data over years was warranted as year of survey administration had no impact on mental health outcomes.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 3.2. Sample 2: comparison groups
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What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The internal consistency of the GHQ-12 was 0.88 in Sample 1 and 0.87 in Sample 2.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 3.3.1. Mental health problems Mental health problems were measured using the 12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) (Goldberg, 1972;Goldberg and Williams, 1988).The GHQ is a screening instrument to identify psychological distress and potential cases of common psychiatric disorder (especially depression), leaving the task of diagnosing actual disorder to a psychiatric interview (McDowell, 2006).The GHQ is the most frequently used scale worldwide to tap into psychological well-being (e.g.Boyd et al., 2011).The internal consistency of the GHQ-12 was 0.88 in Sample 1 and 0.87 in Sample 2. The 12 GHQ items are presented in Table 3. GHQ items explore the respondent's experience in recent weeks compared to his or her usual experience.Response categories are item-specific but all responses are given on 4-point Likert-type scales.We adopt the GHQ scoring method, which uses a bimodal 0-0-1-1 scheme (to score subsequent response categories), conceiving the respondent's total number of 1 scores over the 12 items as an indication of the number of symptoms experienced.In order to determine that a person has a mental health problem, (s)he should experience a minimum number of symptoms.The literature reports substantial variation in the minimum number of symptoms to be considered (Goldberg et al., 1997).In the current study we opt for the GHQ2+ (presence of at least 2 symptoms), indicating psychological distress.We also assess the GHQ4+ (presence of at least 4 symptoms), indicating the risk of having or developing a common psychiatric disorder (especially depression) (Goldberg, 1972;Goldberg and Williams, 1988).A worldwide study on mental health by the World Health Organization suggests using the GHQ4+ if the mean GHQ score in the sample is higher than 2.70 (Goldberg et al., 1998).In Sample 1, the mean GHQ score is 2.84.However, for reasons of comparison with other studies on mental health in the university sector (see Table 2), we also include the GHQ3+ (presence of at least 3 symptoms) when calculating prevalence. Preliminary multigroup confirmatory factor analyses across both samples in our study attested to the stability of the measurement model underlying the GHQ.
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes? Load-bearing: unclear✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“However, with the exception of Post et al. (2009), few studies among academics have addressed work-family conflict bi-directionally.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 2.3.2. Organizational context
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Post et al., 2009 source
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A claim is checked only against the cited paper’s full text, never its abstract, and none is available for its sources.
In the paper
“A lack of social support has been identified as a major source of occupational stress in university staff (Gillespie et al., 2001;Biron et al., 2008).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 2.3.1. Work context Work roles and workload demands, job control, support by peers or supervisors, and job insecurity are the most frequently examined characteristics of the work context (e.g.WHO, 2010).Studies almost unanimously report a consistent link between high job demands and emotional exhaustion and depressive feelings (e.g.De Lange et al., 2004).While PhD students clearly have different roles, tasks and responsibilities to fulfill than regular employees do, we believe that there are a series of common psychological characteristics that make it useful to study PhD students' roles through the lens of the organizational context in which they perform their study and research work.For reasons of clarity, we use the commonly accepted terminology in occupational health psychology, with the clear understanding that work-related aspects, such as job demands, refer to the demands experienced by students in their specific study and research roles.Job demands are those physical, social or organizational aspects of the job that require sustained physical or mental effort.Job control on the other hand, refers to control over the work environment, more specifically over the pace of work, the timing of breaks, or the use of skills (Karasek and Theorell, 1990).Most, but not all, occupational health studies find significant emotional costs when job control is low (De Lange et al., 2004;Vanroelen et al., 2009).Existing research on occupational stress in university staff has consistently found work load to be one of the main causes of stress (e.g.Gillespie et al., 2001;Winefield et al., 2003;Kinman, 2001;Kinman et al., 2006;Tytherleigh et al., 2005;Biron et al., 2008;Sun et al., 2011;Mark and Smith, 2012;Boyd et al., 2011). For PhD students, the balance between demands and control might be different across scientific disciplines as it entails differences in academic practice.Writing a doctoral dissertation in the natural sciences may entail working as part of a large team within a specific well-defined project, and operating with pre-defined, transparent quantitative publication criteria (Larivière, 2012).For PhD students in the humanities and social sciences, establishing one's own research idea (and thus often working in isolation) may constitute more of a challenge in terms of perseverance, given also the lack of consensus over the quality criteria in these fields (Long and Fox, 1995).
What the sources say
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedCausal:direct· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
In the paper
“Workers' participation in decision making has often been shown to reduce job-related emotional strain, job dissatisfaction, absenteeism and turnover intentions (e.g.Rhoades and Eisenberger, 2002).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 2.3.2. Organizational context
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Rhoades and Eisenberger, 2002 source
Strength:boosted· not yet calibratedCausal:direct· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Team conflict was assessed using Jehn's (1995) Intragroup Conflict scale.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 3.3.3. Organizational context
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Jehn, 1995 source
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A claim is checked only against the cited paper’s full text, never its abstract, and none is available for its sources.
In the paper
“According to Kinman (2001), the social interaction patterns between university staff have shifted from a culture of collegiality to a bureaucratic culture and a management style in which consultation and participation in decision making are given less importance (see also Biron et al., 2008).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 2.3.2. Organizational context
What the sources say
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
In the paper
“As the supplyside of PhD production steadily increases, and the demand-side of tenure track positions remains largely unaltered (see Fig. 1), more and more students turn to the nonacademic labor market after obtaining their PhD, often regarding this as a second-choice option (Van Damme, 2014).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 2.3.1. Work context Work roles and workload demands, job control, support by peers or supervisors, and job insecurity are the most frequently examined characteristics of the work context (e.g.WHO, 2010).Studies almost unanimously report a consistent link between high job demands and emotional exhaustion and depressive feelings (e.g.De Lange et al., 2004).While PhD students clearly have different roles, tasks and responsibilities to fulfill than regular employees do, we believe that there are a series of common psychological characteristics that make it useful to study PhD students' roles through the lens of the organizational context in which they perform their study and research work.For reasons of clarity, we use the commonly accepted terminology in occupational health psychology, with the clear understanding that work-related aspects, such as job demands, refer to the demands experienced by students in their specific study and research roles.Job demands are those physical, social or organizational aspects of the job that require sustained physical or mental effort.Job control on the other hand, refers to control over the work environment, more specifically over the pace of work, the timing of breaks, or the use of skills (Karasek and Theorell, 1990).Most, but not all, occupational health studies find significant emotional costs when job control is low (De Lange et al., 2004;Vanroelen et al., 2009).Existing research on occupational stress in university staff has consistently found work load to be one of the main causes of stress (e.g.Gillespie et al., 2001;Winefield et al., 2003;Kinman, 2001;Kinman et al., 2006;Tytherleigh et al., 2005;Biron et al., 2008;Sun et al., 2011;Mark and Smith, 2012;Boyd et al., 2011). For PhD students, the balance between demands and control might be different across scientific disciplines as it entails differences in academic practice.Writing a doctoral dissertation in the natural sciences may entail working as part of a large team within a specific well-defined project, and operating with pre-defined, transparent quantitative publication criteria (Larivière, 2012).For PhD students in the humanities and social sciences, establishing one's own research idea (and thus often working in isolation) may constitute more of a challenge in terms of perseverance, given also the lack of consensus over the quality criteria in these fields (Long and Fox, 1995).
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Van Damme, 2014
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedCausal:direct· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes? Load-bearing: unclear✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
- Not matched
In the paper
“According to the WHO (2010), the interplay between work and home is also a significant potential source of stress impacting mental health, particularly for dual career couples and those experiencing financial difficulties or life crises.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 2.3.2. Organizational context
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites WHO (2010)
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedCausal:conditional· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Not matched
In the paper
“These surveys are periodically organized in Belgium by the Scientific Institute of Public Health and follow a similar research design and procedures as for Sample 1.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 3.2. Sample 2: comparison groups
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites HIS, 2013
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim.
- Not matched
In the paper
“The GHQ is the most frequently used scale worldwide to tap into psychological well-being (e.g.Boyd et al., 2011).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 3.3.1. Mental health problems Mental health problems were measured using the 12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) (Goldberg, 1972;Goldberg and Williams, 1988).The GHQ is a screening instrument to identify psychological distress and potential cases of common psychiatric disorder (especially depression), leaving the task of diagnosing actual disorder to a psychiatric interview (McDowell, 2006).The GHQ is the most frequently used scale worldwide to tap into psychological well-being (e.g.Boyd et al., 2011).The internal consistency of the GHQ-12 was 0.88 in Sample 1 and 0.87 in Sample 2. The 12 GHQ items are presented in Table 3. GHQ items explore the respondent's experience in recent weeks compared to his or her usual experience.Response categories are item-specific but all responses are given on 4-point Likert-type scales.We adopt the GHQ scoring method, which uses a bimodal 0-0-1-1 scheme (to score subsequent response categories), conceiving the respondent's total number of 1 scores over the 12 items as an indication of the number of symptoms experienced.In order to determine that a person has a mental health problem, (s)he should experience a minimum number of symptoms.The literature reports substantial variation in the minimum number of symptoms to be considered (Goldberg et al., 1997).In the current study we opt for the GHQ2+ (presence of at least 2 symptoms), indicating psychological distress.We also assess the GHQ4+ (presence of at least 4 symptoms), indicating the risk of having or developing a common psychiatric disorder (especially depression) (Goldberg, 1972;Goldberg and Williams, 1988).A worldwide study on mental health by the World Health Organization suggests using the GHQ4+ if the mean GHQ score in the sample is higher than 2.70 (Goldberg et al., 1998).In Sample 1, the mean GHQ score is 2.84.However, for reasons of comparison with other studies on mental health in the university sector (see Table 2), we also include the GHQ3+ (presence of at least 3 symptoms) when calculating prevalence. Preliminary multigroup confirmatory factor analyses across both samples in our study attested to the stability of the measurement model underlying the GHQ.
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Boyd et al., 2011 source
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A claim is checked only against the cited paper’s full text, never its abstract, and none is available for its sources.
In the paper
“As in other settings, work-home conflict in the university sector has also shown particularly strong relations with psychological distress (Kinman and Jones, 2003;Kinman et al., 2006).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 2.3.2. Organizational context
What the sources say
Strength:boosted· not yet calibratedCausal:correlational· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
In the paper
“A worldwide study on mental health by the World Health Organization suggests using the GHQ4+ if the mean GHQ score in the sample is higher than 2.70 (Goldberg et al., 1998).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 3.3.1. Mental health problems Mental health problems were measured using the 12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) (Goldberg, 1972;Goldberg and Williams, 1988).The GHQ is a screening instrument to identify psychological distress and potential cases of common psychiatric disorder (especially depression), leaving the task of diagnosing actual disorder to a psychiatric interview (McDowell, 2006).The GHQ is the most frequently used scale worldwide to tap into psychological well-being (e.g.Boyd et al., 2011).The internal consistency of the GHQ-12 was 0.88 in Sample 1 and 0.87 in Sample 2. The 12 GHQ items are presented in Table 3. GHQ items explore the respondent's experience in recent weeks compared to his or her usual experience.Response categories are item-specific but all responses are given on 4-point Likert-type scales.We adopt the GHQ scoring method, which uses a bimodal 0-0-1-1 scheme (to score subsequent response categories), conceiving the respondent's total number of 1 scores over the 12 items as an indication of the number of symptoms experienced.In order to determine that a person has a mental health problem, (s)he should experience a minimum number of symptoms.The literature reports substantial variation in the minimum number of symptoms to be considered (Goldberg et al., 1997).In the current study we opt for the GHQ2+ (presence of at least 2 symptoms), indicating psychological distress.We also assess the GHQ4+ (presence of at least 4 symptoms), indicating the risk of having or developing a common psychiatric disorder (especially depression) (Goldberg, 1972;Goldberg and Williams, 1988).A worldwide study on mental health by the World Health Organization suggests using the GHQ4+ if the mean GHQ score in the sample is higher than 2.70 (Goldberg et al., 1998).In Sample 1, the mean GHQ score is 2.84.However, for reasons of comparison with other studies on mental health in the university sector (see Table 2), we also include the GHQ3+ (presence of at least 3 symptoms) when calculating prevalence. Preliminary multigroup confirmatory factor analyses across both samples in our study attested to the stability of the measurement model underlying the GHQ.
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Goldberg et al., 1998 source
Load-bearingStrength:hedged· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Selective non-response analyses showed a slightly higher proportion of females, respondents in the youngest age categories, social scientists and Belgians compared to the total population.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 3.1. Sample 1: PhD students
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Inspirational leadership style, autocratic leadership style, and 'laissez-faire' or passive leadership style were measured using 11, 6 and 4 items respectively (de Hoogh et al., 2004).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 3.3.2. Work context
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites de Hoogh et al., 2004 source
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“The literature reports substantial variation in the minimum number of symptoms to be considered (Goldberg et al., 1997).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 3.3.1. Mental health problems Mental health problems were measured using the 12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) (Goldberg, 1972;Goldberg and Williams, 1988).The GHQ is a screening instrument to identify psychological distress and potential cases of common psychiatric disorder (especially depression), leaving the task of diagnosing actual disorder to a psychiatric interview (McDowell, 2006).The GHQ is the most frequently used scale worldwide to tap into psychological well-being (e.g.Boyd et al., 2011).The internal consistency of the GHQ-12 was 0.88 in Sample 1 and 0.87 in Sample 2. The 12 GHQ items are presented in Table 3. GHQ items explore the respondent's experience in recent weeks compared to his or her usual experience.Response categories are item-specific but all responses are given on 4-point Likert-type scales.We adopt the GHQ scoring method, which uses a bimodal 0-0-1-1 scheme (to score subsequent response categories), conceiving the respondent's total number of 1 scores over the 12 items as an indication of the number of symptoms experienced.In order to determine that a person has a mental health problem, (s)he should experience a minimum number of symptoms.The literature reports substantial variation in the minimum number of symptoms to be considered (Goldberg et al., 1997).In the current study we opt for the GHQ2+ (presence of at least 2 symptoms), indicating psychological distress.We also assess the GHQ4+ (presence of at least 4 symptoms), indicating the risk of having or developing a common psychiatric disorder (especially depression) (Goldberg, 1972;Goldberg and Williams, 1988).A worldwide study on mental health by the World Health Organization suggests using the GHQ4+ if the mean GHQ score in the sample is higher than 2.70 (Goldberg et al., 1998).In Sample 1, the mean GHQ score is 2.84.However, for reasons of comparison with other studies on mental health in the university sector (see Table 2), we also include the GHQ3+ (presence of at least 3 symptoms) when calculating prevalence. Preliminary multigroup confirmatory factor analyses across both samples in our study attested to the stability of the measurement model underlying the GHQ.
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Goldberg et al., 1997 source
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A claim is checked only against the cited paper’s full text, never its abstract, and none is available for its sources.
In the paper
“Prior research in the university sector has shown that work-life interference is high (e.g.Gmelch et al., 1984;Kinman and Jones, 2003;Fox et al., 2011;Sun et al., 2011)”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 2.3.2. Organizational context
What the sources say
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Table 5 reports the findings of analyses examining whether characteristics of the work and organizational context of PhD students in Flanders were associated with their mental health, while controlling for sociodemographic characteristics.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 4. Results
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In the paper
“Cronbach's alpha for this scale was 0.92.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 3.3.3. Organizational context
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“A higher number of PhD students for each advisor could imply that faculty may find it more difficult to invest sufficient time and attention in each PhD student.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 5.4. Policy implications
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedCausal:conditional· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✗ Based: failsProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
In the paper
“In contrast, governmental research policies that allow advisors to invest in developing an inspirational influence towards their PhD students could buffer against stress (LePine et al., 2016).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 5.4. Policy implications
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites LePine et al., 2016 source
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedCausal:conditional· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The adjusted RR statistically corrects for age and gender differences across samples.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 3.4. Analytical strategy
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim.
In the paper
“Stephan and Levin (2001) have shown that such a situation not only impacts mental health, but weakens the implicit psychological contract between PhD students and the research team in which they are doing their research, thus directly affecting research performance.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 5.4. Policy implications
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Stephan and Levin (2001) source
Strength:boosted· not yet calibratedCausal:direct· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Our analyses suggest that universities will benefit in terms of PhD students' mental health when they facilitate management of work-family balance and workload, design open decision-making procedures, and help PhD supervisors to adopt leadership styles that lead to satisfactory and constructive work relations.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 5.4. Policy implications
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. It may state two separate claims as one.
A claim is checked only against the cited paper’s full text, never its abstract, and none is available for its sources.
In the paper
“Studies in other countries have shown that financial worries and debts are one of the major stressors experienced by those working towards a PhD (Biron et al., 2008;El-Ghoroury et al., 2012).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 5.3. Limitations and alternative explanations
What the sources say
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedCausal:correlational· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
In the paper
“The GHQ4+ is a probabilistic measurement for psychiatric caseness, and advises medical attention to be sought for the reported problems (McDowell, 2006).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 5.3. Limitations and alternative explanations
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites McDowell, 2006
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
- Not matched
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Furthermore, given the international orientation of the academic work environment, with high mobility of researchers across countries, we would expect that research organization factors rapidly spread across the globe, thus making the PhD experience in all probability comparable across countries.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 5.3. Limitations and alternative explanations
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedCausal:direct· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✗ Based: failsProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“However, the vast number of studies examining causal links between organizational factors and the onset of mental health problems in occupational health research in other settings suggests that the work environment is at least partially responsible for the prevalence of mental health problems observed in the current study.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 5.3. Limitations and alternative explanations
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedCausal:conditional· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✗ Based: failsProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Similarly, an increase in the number of PhD students versus stability in the number of faculty positions may give graduating PhD students bleak career prospects, in which supply exceeds demand for professionals with a PhD.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 5.4. Policy implications
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedCausal:conditional· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✗ Based: failsProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
In the paper
“Work-life interface was measured using the two widely adopted scales of family-work conflict (5 items) and work-family conflict (5 items) developed by Netemeyer et al. (1996).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 3.3.3. Organizational context
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Netemeyer et al., 1996 source
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Cronbach's alpha was 0.91 for the life-work conflict scale and 0.93 for the work-life conflict scale.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 3.3.3. Organizational context
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Our findings also suggest that universities might benefit from offering PhD students clear and full information on job expectations and career prospects, both in and outside academia.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 5.4. Policy implications
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
In the paper
“For instance, a gradual increase in governmental research investments in the number of PhD scholarships and financial incentives for universities to increase the number of PhDs could have unforeseen side effects (see Fig. 1).”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 5.4. Policy implications
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Fig. 1
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedCausal:conditional· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Not matched
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“As financial worries and debts are probably not a crucial issue for PhD students in Flanders, if anything, we would expect that the prevalence of mental health problems is even higher in those countries where PhD candidates have more financial difficulties.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 5.3. Limitations and alternative explanations
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedCausal:correlational· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✗ Based: failsProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds. It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: Most PhD students in Flanders receive a scholarship or are formally employed by a university.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Fourth, our study extends previous research on mental health in the sector by considering work-life conflict bi-directionally and by adding data on future career prospects to a series of well-known organizational stressors found in the work environment.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 5.1. Contributions
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“It could be that our findings are idiosyncratic to the Flemish academic landscape.”
§ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students > 5.3. Limitations and alternative explanations
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
The paper relies on this without support.
The sample of 3659 PhD students in Flanders, Belgium is representative of the population of PhD students in Flanders.
“a representative sample of PhD students in Flanders, Belgium (N = 3659)”
The paper relies on this without support.
The comparison groups (highly educated general population, highly educated employees, higher education students) are comparable to PhD students for the purpose of comparing mental health prevalence.
“we compare PhD students to three other samples: (1) highly educated in the general population (N = 769); (2) highly educated employees (N = 592); and (3) higher education students (N = 333).”
The paper relies on this without support.
Official registration of both staff and student mental health problems by universities is relatively low.
“Official registration of both staff and student mental health problems (e.g.depression, anxiety, burnout or emotional exhaustion) by universities is relatively low, which seems to be in stark contrast with the picture painted in media reports.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Previous research on well-being and mental health in academia has usually been restricted to one specific discipline or university.
“Previous research on well-being and mental health in academia has usually been restricted to one specific discipline or university.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Most PhD students in Flanders receive a scholarship or are formally employed by a university.
“Most PhD students in Flanders receive a scholarship or are formally employed by a university.”
The paper relies on this without support.
The diagnosis as to whether an individual actually has a clinically significant disorder must be assessed by psychiatric interview.
“The diagnosis as to whether an individual actually has a clinically significant disorder must be assessed by psychiatric interview.”
The paper relies on this without support.
In the long run, mental health problems in PhD students will impact on research itself.
“In the long run, however, it will also impact on research itself.”
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Burnout among trainees is characterized by persistent mental exhaustion, a diminished sense of personal accomplishment, significant financial strain, and pervasive uncertainty about long‐term career viability [3].”
From Bridging the Gap Between Training and Reality: A Dental Scientist Trainee Perspective (2026) · cites this paper as [3]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.
GHQ items are assigned to the wrong table
MinorThe text says Table 3 presents the 12 GHQ items, but Table 3 reports PhD-student characteristics. The GHQ symptom rows appear in Table 4.
“The 12 GHQ items are presented in Table 3.”
“Table: 3 Table 3 Characteristics of PhD students, Flanders 2013 (N = 3659): percentage (%), mean (M), standard deviation (SD), minimum-maximum (Min-Max).”
The reported GHQ4+ range omits a higher value in Table 2
MinorThe text gives 41.8% as the upper end of the UK GHQ4+ results, but Table 2 also reports 43.4% for a UK academic sample.
“As for the GHQ4+, results from the U.K. vary from 31.8% in a study of lecturers and senior lecturers (McClenahan et al., 2007) to 41.8% in academic employees (Kinman and Jones, 2008).”
“Kinman (2008) Work stressors, health and sense of coherence in UK academic employees UK academics Cross-sectional study.Random sample of 1000 UK academic employees working full time 465 47% 59% male Mean age 46y / / 43.4%”
Citations
Cites
Healthy work: stress, productivity, and the reconstruction of working life
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“Job control on the other hand, refers to control over the work environment, more specifically over the pace of work, the timing of breaks, or the use of skills (Karasek and Theorell, 1990).”
BackgroundPerceived organizational support: a review of the literature.
Rhoades, L., & Eisenberger, R. (2002) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.698 · Cited by 7,592
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Netemeyer, R. G., Boles, J. S., & McMurrian, R. (1996) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.81.4.400 · Cited by 3,864
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“The literature reports substantial variation in the minimum number of symptoms to be considered (Goldberg et al., 1997).”
BackgroundThe detection of psychiatric illness by questionnaire
Levy, R. (1973) · Journal of Psychosomatic Research · doi:10.1016/0022-3999(73)90039-1 · Cited by 2,707
Logistic Regression Using the SAS System : Theory and Application
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Health and Well-Being in the Workplace: A Review and Synthesis of the Literature
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“Given the compelling evidence for the effects of mental health problems on individuals’ research output (Danna and Griffin, 1999), it is to be expected that a sizable cohort of PhD students suffering from mental health problems may affect the overall quality and quantity of individuals’ research output.”
Background
Flagged first, then by citations
5 of the 80 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 1,101–1,170 of 1,170
Construção de taxonomia de fatores de risco psicossociais na pós-graduação stricto sensu
Cassiano, C., Leal, L. A., Bernardes, M. A., et al. (2026) · Interface - Comunicação Saúde Educação · doi:10.1590/interface.250108
Building a taxonomy of psychosocial risk factors in stricto sensu graduate studies
Cassiano, C., Leal, L. A., Bernardes, M. A., et al. (2026) · Interface - Comunicação Saúde Educação · doi:10.1590/interface.260092
Bisal, N., Brookes-Smith, C., Patel, R., Sharp, S., Lycett, D., Turner, A., & Whelan, M. (2026) · Health Science Reports · doi:10.1002/hsr2.72429
“Given the prevalence of concerns, such as academic performance [63], lack of confidence in academic abilities [64], imposter feelings [17, 18] and disappointment in one's capabilities [64, 65], SESRL represents a salient mechanism shaping how postgraduate students appraise and cope with academic…”
Lintner, T., Brücknerová, K., Nekardová, B., Navrátilová, J., Vlček, J., Šejnohová, K., & Belovecová, B. (2026) · Higher Education Quarterly · doi:10.1111/hequ.70142 · Cited by 1
Exploitation in higher education: A complex systems and structures account
Herman, J. (2026) · Theory and Research in Education · doi:10.1177/14778785261446430
“…wage (Wapman et al., 2022), have led to a well-documented mental health crisis among graduate students (Boyle and McKinzie, 2021; Evans et al., 2018; Gallea et al., 2021; Levecque et al., 2017), that is exacerbated by faculty advisors pinning blame on students themselves (Woffard and Maher, 2016).”
Will I be successful in my PhD? The role of person-environment fit for doctoral success
Steinhauser, R., Merkle, B. V. M., Ott, J., et al. (2026) · Higher Education · doi:10.1007/s10734-026-01656-8
Acharya, V., Aneesha Acharya, K., & Gil, M. T. (2026) · International Journal of Educational Development · doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2026.103588
Hollandt, M., Richter, J., & Wirkner, J. (2026) · Journal of Experimental Psychopathology · doi:10.1177/20438087261443727
“Research suggests that PhD students are at a 2.4 higher risk of developing mental disorders than the general population (Levecque et al., 2017).”
InfluentialDevelopment and validation of the doctoral students’ time anxiety scale
Chen, J., & Ren, J. (2026) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1710486
“A large-scale Belgian study in 2017 found that 32% of surveyed doctoral students suffered from severe mental illness, particularly depression, with over half experiencing suboptimal mental health (Levecque et al., 2017).”
Einführung: Akademische Talententwicklung
Huizingh, E. (2026) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-15929-8_1
Huizingh, E. (2026) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-15929-8_7
Qualitative analysis of university postgraduate students’ experience in remote supervision
Opesemowo, O. A. G., & Plessis, D. (2026) · Discover Education · doi:10.1007/s44217-026-01591-x
“These strategies align with Levecque et al. [48], who highlight the mental health challenges of postgraduate study and the importance of proactive coping mechanisms.”
Lessons learned from the RAICAM doctoral network research sprints and field demonstrations
Kenan, A., Kordkheili, S. S., Cárdenas, J. J. G., et al. (2026) · Robotics and Autonomous Systems · doi:10.1016/j.robot.2026.105523
Navigating the Margins of Women's Mental Health and Challenges in Academia
Abid, S. (2026) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/979-8-3373-6511-4.ch008
Factors Associated with Binge Drinking Among Brazilian Graduate Students: A Cross-Sectional Study
Costa, C. M. D. O., Alves, V. D. M., Molina, N. P. F. M., et al. (2026) · Substance Use & Misuse · doi:10.1080/10826084.2026.2672653
IMPLICIT PROBLEMS IN GRADUATE THESES: AN EXAMINATION OF THE CAUSES OF STAGNATION IN MASTER’S THESIS
Belsu, F., & Cengizhan, S. (2026) · Journal of Advanced Education Studies · doi:10.48166/ejaes.1855443
A Macroeconomic Model of Ph.D. Enrollment with Income Risk and Non-Pecuniary PreferencesPreprint
Hayama, A. (2026) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.6833703
Doctorateness som kvalitetskriterium: Komiteers vurderinger og doktorgradsstudenters erfaringer
Hagen, S., Madsen, L., Rusaanes, V., Pedersen, H. R., & Leonardsen, A. L. (2026) · Norsk pedagogisk tidsskrift · doi:10.18261/npt.110.2.8
Gite, P., & Trivedi, A. K. (2026) · Journal of Further and Higher Education · doi:10.1080/0309877x.2026.2673365
“The fact that higher education research scholars face a specific demand and challenge provides a significant gap in the literature (Levecque et al. 2017).”
Factors related to PhD completion among doctoral candidates: a systematic scoping review
Helgøy, K. V., Flobakk-Sitter, F., & Guldbrandsen, A. (2026) · Frontiers in Education · doi:10.3389/feduc.2026.1794620 · Cited by 4
Abdelrahman, H., & Qadire, M. I. A. (2026) · Evidence-Based Nursing · doi:10.1136/ebnurs-2026-104608
Doctoral Student Wellbeing: Conceptualization, Challenges and Pathways Forward
Martínez‐García, I., Witte, H. D., Cano‐García, F. J., & García‐Martínez, J. (2026) · Encyclopedia · doi:10.3390/encyclopedia6060127
“This dual dimension is especially visible in systems where doctoral candidates hold a contract and receive re-muneration [5], but it also affects those without funding, who are forced to combine thesis work with external employment, introducing additional work–life tensions that directly impact…”
Mamani-Benito, O., & Ventura‐León, J. (2026) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1766064
Building and Reframing Relationships With AI Through an Indigenous Perspective
Su, Y. (2026) · Advances in computational intelligence and robotics book series · doi:10.4018/979-8-3373-6571-8.ch012
Exploring the Knowledge and Awareness of Mental Health among Graduate Students
Saleem, M., Nadeem, M., & Sohail, H. M. (2026) · The Knowledge · doi:10.55737/tk/v5i1.51158
Estilo de vida em alunos de mestrado no interior da Bahia: ações educativas em saúde
Barros, K. S., Ribeiro, D. M. O., de Almeida, C. B., et al. (2026) · Revista Educação em Páginas · doi:10.22481/redupa.v5i5.19068
Held at the pass: Rethinking PhD readiness for chef-pracademics
Roslan, M. R. B. H. (2026) · International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science · doi:10.1016/j.ijgfs.2026.101582
Maciel, É. D. S., Pontes‐Silva, A., Quaresma, F. R. P., & do Nascimento, L. R. (2026) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12889-026-28256-6
“Evidence indicates that universities that systematically invest in the mental health of their postgraduate students achieve relevant institutional benefits, such as increased scientific productivity, lower attrition rates, and higher student satisfaction [6].”
Arango, L. C. (2026) · Bellaterra Journal of Teaching & Learning Language & Literature · doi:10.5565/rev/jtl3.1511
“These challenges symbolize the structural fractures that permeate academic careers and pose well-documented risks to students’ emotional well-being and mental stability (e.g., Cisco, 2020; Levecque et al., 2017).”
Supporting Military-Connected Online Doctoral Students and Alumni
Broderick, M. (2026) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/979-8-2600-2721-9.ch001
Stockard, J., Ngo, N. S., Schlatterer, J. C., & Lewis, P. A. (2026) · Journal of Chemical Education · doi:10.1021/acs.jchemed.6c00194 · Cited by 1
The relationship between reflective thinking and well-being among Moroccan doctoral students
Aqadoh, H., & Trimasse, N. (2026) · Reflective Practice · doi:10.1080/14623943.2026.2701202
León, F. G., & Sosa‐Panzera, L. (2026) · Biotropica · doi:10.1111/btp.70243
“At the level of research groups and supervisors, interpersonal interactions strongly influence graduate students' perceptions of academic life and their future careers (Levecque et al. 2017).”
Methodology in motion: insights from the application of netnography
Marchowska-Raza, M., & Kozinets, R. V. (2026) · Qualitative Market Research An International Journal · doi:10.1108/qmr-10-2025-0254
Fear of Missing Out in Academic Workers: A Theoretical Framework
Bozzetti, M., Cascio, A. L., & Napolitano, D. (2026) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1111/nyas.70338
Luna, L. (2026) · Revista Guillermo de Ockham · doi:10.21500/22563202.8132
Monahan, D. M. (2026) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/979-8-3373-9315-5.ch008
Academic Stress and Mental Health Challenges Among International Students in China
Zeng, D., Zubair, A., & Haijun, D. (2026) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs16071212
“The results indicated that academic workload had a significant role in predicting the three mental health measures (Levecque et al., 2017).”
Zhou, J., Zhang, Y., Dong, Y., Xia, L., Qin, Y., & Ye, X. (2026) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs16071246
“Research indicates that postgraduate students’ mental health issues are closely linked to the quality of their supervisory relationships, and the lack of emotional support is a significant source of psychological stress for them (Levecque et al., 2017; Ogilvie, 2020).”
Zhao, G. (2026) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1783669 · Cited by 1
Alrashed, A. M., Alzuwaed, J., & Algomaiah, N. A. (2026) · Journal of Health Management · doi:10.1177/09720634261467478
“The literature highlighted these as main sources of conflict in students’ lives and causes of distress and burnout (Galdino et al., 2016; Levecque et al., 2017; Rizzolo et al., 2015).”
Back to the future: fifty years of Studies in Higher Education and emerging directions
Baudet, C., & Point, S. (2026) · Studies in Higher Education · doi:10.1080/03075079.2026.2705990
Scheitle, C. P., Corcoran, K. E., & Remsburg, T. (2026) · Social Problems · doi:10.1093/socpro/spag050
Byrne, T., Leggett, S. E., Mallampooty, V., Zapata, A., Blodgett, P., Smithing, F., & Wu, L. (2026) · The Journal of Higher Education · doi:10.1080/00221546.2026.2715286
Liu, X., Zhong, D., & Jinbo, H. (2026) · Journal of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1002/jclp.70213
Meng, J., Wen, Z., Liu, L., Peng, M., & Liu, X. (2026) · Journal of Adult Development · doi:10.1007/s10804-026-09573-x
Lai, X. (2026) · Journal of higher education teaching. · doi:10.62517/jhet.202615309
González-Rábago, Y., de Valderrama, C. B. F., & Hein, P. (2026) · Quaderns de Psicologia · doi:10.5565/rev/qpsicologia.2343
Angulo, E. Á., & Taboada, J. A. R. (2026) · Cadernos Brasileiros de Terapia Ocupacional · doi:10.1590/2526-8910.cto430942783
Liu, L., Li, X., Dong, H., & Wang, Y. (2026) · Higher Education Research & Development · doi:10.1080/07294360.2026.2716759
Vecchio, R., Mosconi, G., Gandola, M., Amerio, A., Odone, A., & Health Mode On Investigators (2026) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1900506
“In Belgium, 32% of doctoral candidates were reported at risk of developing mental health issues related to stress (Levecque et al., 2017).”
Yang, X., Zhang, C., Min, X., Yeo, K. J., & Liu, Y. (2026) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1881973
“For instance, a large representative study of PhD students in Belgium found that roughly one in three was at risk of a common psychiatric disorder, with the supervisor ’ s leadership style among the organizational factors most strongly associated with mental health (8).”
Tabora, J., Manion, K., & O'Neill, D. (2026) · ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition · doi:10.18260/1-2--60702
Ni, J., Shi, W., Wang, Y., & Guo, J. (2026) · International Journal of Educational Research · doi:10.1016/j.ijer.2026.103093
Yuan, X., Ebrahimzadeh, S. M., Wei, Y., Xu, J., & Fu, B. (2026) · Energy and Buildings · doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118158
Cazenave, M., & Bonnaire, C. (2026) · Pratiques Psychologiques · doi:10.1016/j.prps.2026.06.002
Ghaseminangi, S., Jokar, F., & Yousefy, A. (2026) · Journal of Education and Health Promotion · doi:10.4103/jehp.jehp_1327_25
“[10,11] However, while these challenges have been thoroughly documented in Western academic environments, there’s a noticeable absence of qualitative insights into how these dynamics play out in non‑Western, resource‑constrained settings.”
Mumcu, M., Lodge, J. K., & Kavsara, H. K. (2026) · Nutrients · doi:10.3390/nu18172858 · Cited by 1
“…with poorer academic achievement among medical postgraduates [38], work-organization factors have been linked to mental-health problems among PhD students [39], and a substantial burden of moderate or severe depression or anxiety symptoms has been reported among economics graduate students [40].”
Exploring students’ well-being: insights from Indonesian fast-track postgraduate program
Setyowibowo, H., Cahyadi, S., Kumalasari, A. D., Raudhoh, S., Vicianti, A. P., Lestari, J. D., Khoerudin, A., Harinaldi, & Andarwulan, N. (2026) · Psychological Science and Education · doi:10.17759/pse.2026310410
Dumić, L., Pavlovic, N. L., & Miškulin, M. (2026) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs16091575
“Similarly, Levecque et al. found that 32% of PhD students were at risk of developing a common psychiatric disorder, with work organization factors including super-visory style, job demands, and work–family interference identified as significant predictors of poor mental health (Levecque et al., 2017).…”
Yuan, X., Wei, Y., Xu, J., & Fu, B. (2026) · Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering · doi:10.1080/13467581.2026.2726601
Jiang, J., Duan, J., Xu, K., 常乐, Wang, H., Cheng, X., & Wang, J. (2026) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-10458261/v1
Sense of belonging in doctoral education: a scoping review
Le, A. T., & Munoz, C. A. R. (2026) · Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education · doi:10.1108/sgpe-11-2025-0194
When women meet the abstract student: academic-family conflict among women pursuing doctoral studies
Labrín, S. M., Reyes-Pérez, S., Urrutia, B. B., et al. (2026) · Studies in Higher Education · doi:10.1080/03075079.2026.2730167
From East to West – an early-career researcher’s voyage across continents
Eziuzor, S. C. (2026) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.113141
Nugba, R. M., & Asante, E. F. (2026) · Science Mundi · doi:10.51867/scimundi.6.2.28
“On the other hand, the lack of supervision is an indicator of cascading adverse consequences, such as extended enrolment, decreased productivity, isolation, anxiety, depression, and extent of non-completion (Levecque et al., 2017; Schmidt & Hansson, 2018).”
Chen, S., Zhang, L., & Chen, G. (2026) · Higher Education Quarterly · doi:10.1111/hequ.70175
Ozin, G. A. (2026) · Matter · doi:10.1016/j.matt.2026.103027
Nelson, J., Walters, D., Jones, A., & Jacobs, S. (2026) · International Journal of Higher Education · doi:10.5430/ijhe.v15n1p34
Metadata
- Authors
- Levecque, K., Anseel, F., De Beuckelaer, A., Van der Heyden, J., & Gisle, L.
- Affiliations
- Ghent University (BE)
- Institut Scientifique de Santé Publique (BE)
- Corresponding author
- Levecque, Katia
- Venue
- Research Policy
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-05
- Volume
- 46
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 868-879
- ISSN
- 0048-7333 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2595745805
- Cited by
- 1,182
- References
- 80
- Citations by year
- 2026: 141 · 2025: 120 · 2024: 166 · 2023: 153 · 2022: 163 · 2021: 141 · 2020: 131 · 2019: 93 · 2018: 58 · 2017: 16
- FWCI
- 131.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Research Policy (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) (submittedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Rare & Special e-Zone (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
- SocArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- SocArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- Funders
- Ministry of Work, Economy, Innovation and Sports
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Doctoral Education Challenges and Solutions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Student Stress and Coping
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
- Keywords
- doctoral students, mental health, work organization, academic working conditions, depression, job demands, job control, supervisor leadership, work-family interface, university students, highly educated employees
About these checks
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