Mental Health in PhD Students and ECR’s - Richard Tahtinen

There is growing research evidence that academics are struggling. For example, the majority of university staff find their job stressful. There is more burnout in university staff than in general working populations. Some studies show that a third of doctoral candidates are at risk, or have developed, mental health issues.

In this episode, we focus on mental health of doctoral candidates and early career academics. We discuss emerging research on factors that contribute to challenges in the doctoral research journey, including problems in the supervisory relationship, unwritten rules, work family conflict and uncertain career prospects.

Richard Tahtinen is a clinical psychologist, a doctoral candidate at Liverpool John Moores University researching mental health in athletes, and a lecturer in Akureyri University. In this episode, he shares reflections on his research and personal journey as a PhD candidate and offers his thoughts on what can be done to support doctoral researchers in their journeys.