release of a new study on faculty anxiety<\/a>, which was preprinted earlier this month and is currently under peer review. <\/p>\nMarina Holz, co-author and dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at New York Medical College, said she and her colleagues often talk about feeling anxious about looming deadlines, but that without definitive data, it\u2019s hard to know if they\u2019re unique or if anxiety \u201cis an across-the-board feeling for many professors.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, to get large-scale information on faculty anxiety and learn how it could be mitigated or exacerbated by factors such as family support, academic rank, discipline and having an academic parent, Tonge, Holz and two other researchers analyzed survey responses of 2,106 professors across 62\u00a0higher education institutions of varying types\u2014including public research universities, liberal arts colleges, historically Black colleges and universities, and Hispanic-serving institutions. <\/p>\n
Anietie Andy, assistant professor in the electrical engineering and computer science department at Howard University, was also a co-author on the study.<\/p>\n
The study found that faculty rank was one of the biggest predictors of faculty anxiety, with tenure-track assistant professors showing the highest anxiety scores. And just getting a job on the tenure track often requires many early-career academics to make a big move, typically far away from their social support networks. <\/p>\n
\u201cWorking in academia over 1,000 miles away from any family is really tough,\u201d one respondent said. \u201cWe have young twins, and my husband is a professional, so we are both in stressful jobs trying to raise kids without support. Definitely the worst thing about academia.\u201d <\/p>\n
But researchers found that while it may help, tenure isn\u2019t a cure-all for faculty anxiety, especially when professors don\u2019t have family nearby. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact I live alone and that my close relatives live far away is a constant source of anxiety and depression even though I am a successful tenured faculty member,\u201d explained one respondent. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t gone away after tenure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additionally, the survey showed minimal difference in faculty anxiety levels across institution types, with one exception: Professors at HBCUs and HSIs without strong support systems had much higher levels of predicted anxiety than those at other institution types. However, professors at HBCUs and HSIs who did report having close family relationships or an academic parent had predicted anxiety levels on par with faculty at other institution types. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who work at HBCUs and HSIs may come from a different background, work with different types of students and face all sorts of academic biases that probably affect people\u2019s anxiety levels,\u201d Holz said. \u201cThey also may have different relationships with their families. These findings imply that for those people, family really matters and helps to alleviate anxiety they may otherwise feel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Close family relationships and having academic parents also lowered predicted anxiety levels across faculty ranks and most academic disciplines. Marta Elliott, chair of the sociology department at the University of Nevada at Reno, has written about mental health and the workforce. She wasn\u2019t involved in the study but said the findings reflect her experience and offer valuable new data on the underresearched subject of faculty anxiety. <\/p>\n
\u201cI had two faculty parents, and it was a huge advantage for me because I\u00a0was raised in this culture and don\u2019t feel like an outsider,\u201d she said. \u201cMy mother was a department chair and I\u2019m a department chair. I\u2019d call her all the time with my dilemmas and we\u2019d talk about it. Academic parents have experience, and they can be great consultants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elliott also agreed with the paper\u2019s conclusion that institutional interventions focused on building supportive environments could alleviate faculty anxiety, especially for those who are first-generation academics or don\u2019t have family nearby. <\/p>\n
\u201cSocial support protects people from depression and anxiety,\u201d she said. \u201cHaving a family that\u2019s supportive provides an alternative if things go wrong. What\u2019s particularly stressful about academia is not getting tenure, which is why the tenure-track professors are most anxious. If you have a family or place to escape to, they can tell you you\u2019re all right, because higher ed is not going to tell you you\u2019re all right.\u201d<\/p>\n
For those without that family support, the authors of the paper suggest that colleges and universities could develop targeted support programs for early-career faculty that are explicitly designed to acknowledge and address anxiety, offer more flexible working conditions and on-campus childcare, and foster stronger community connections, particularly for those faculty without an academic parent. <\/p>\n
\u201cSocial support and how big of an impact it can have on mental health doesn\u2019t get as much attention as individual interventions,\u201d said Tonge, co-author of the study. \u201cWe see a lot about wellness, personal accountability and learning how to be more mindful. But institutions could also consider how to support faculty more holistically\u2014not just what they can do to relieve their own anxiety, but how they can lean on others and receive additional social support.\u201d<\/p>\n
And as the survey found, some faculty members are eager for their institutions to take those suggestions seriously. <\/p>\n
\u201cFaculty, not just students, need communities of care within their schools,\u201d one faculty respondent wrote. \u201cIt feels like\u2014and I often think\u2014that no one gives a damn about me, my work, anything at my place of employment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An ever-contracting job market and expectations to juggle teaching, research and administrative duties can contribute to many faculty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[29,2266,920,105,3360,897,218,12,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-120623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-career","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-events","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-higher","13":"tag-jobs","14":"tag-mental-health","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114547563082696822","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}