Mental Health of PhD Students at Polish Universities—Before the COVID-19 Outbreak

Mateusz Kowalczyk, Michał Seweryn Karbownik, Edward Kowalczyk, Monika Sienkiewicz and Monika Talarowska
Additional contact information
Mateusz Kowalczyk: Babinski Memorial Hospital, Aleksandrowska St. 159, 91-229 Lodz, Poland
Michał Seweryn Karbownik: Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Medical University of Lodz, Żeligowskiego St. 7/9, 90-752 Lodz, Poland
Edward Kowalczyk: Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Medical University of Lodz, Żeligowskiego St. 7/9, 90-752 Lodz, Poland
Monika Sienkiewicz: Department of Pharmaceutical Microbiology and Microbiological Diagnostic, Medical University of Lodz, Muszyńskiego St. 1, 90-151 Lodz, Poland
Monika Talarowska: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychopathology, Institute of Psychology, University of Lodz, Smugowa St. 10/12, 91-433 Lodz, Poland

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 22, 1-9

Abstract: Background: A group particularly exposed to the occurrence of disorders in the sphere of the psyche are young people with a newly developing personality structure and a sense of identity. In the available literature there are few reports describing the mental health of doctoral students—a group that is affected by a particular group of stressors. The aim of the research was to assess the mental health of PhD students at Polish universities. Material and Methods: The Polish adaptation of the GHQ Questionnaire-28, developed by David Goldberg et al. was used in the research. PhD students from all universities associated in the National Representation of Doctoral Students were invited to take part in the research. A total of 576 completed questionnaires were received. Results: It was found that depression is statistically more frequent in doctoral students who are not in any relationship with another person; anxiety/insomnia is more common in women than men and less frequently in doctoral students of general than in technical universities. Conclusions: (1) More than half of the surveyed students complain about the deterioration of mental health. The most commonly reported symptom groups are anxiety and insomnia, followed by social dysfunctions and somatic symptoms. (2) Depression is statistically more common in people who are not in any relationship with another person and anxiety and insomnia are statistically more common in women than in men and statistically less frequent in doctoral students of general universities than technical universities. (3) In view of the presented results, educating young adults in the field of self-awareness in the field of mental health seems to be particularly important.

Keywords: mental health; PhD students; depression; anxiety; insomnia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/22/12068/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/22/12068/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:22:p:12068-:d:681130

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().