Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710.
Department of Cell Biology, Office of Biomedical Graduate Education, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710.
CBE Life Sci Educ. 2019 Dec;18(4):ar51. doi: 10.1187/cbe.19-03-0060.
Although doctoral students in the biomedical sciences have been recognized as a population at particular risk for mental health problems such as burnout and depression, little research has been conducted to identify candidate targets for intervention. To this end, we used the stress process model to evaluate potential mediators of stress-burnout and stress-depression relationships in biomedical doctoral students. A cross-sectional sample ( = 69) completed validated self-report measures of stress; symptoms of burnout and depression; and perceptions of mastery, social support, and advisor support. In linear regression models, we found that academic stressors were most predictive of burnout, whereas family/monetary stressors were most predictive of depression. In mediation models, we found that the relationship between stress and burnout was partially mediated by mastery and advisor support, while the stress-depression relationship was partially mediated by mastery. These findings represent a first step in identifying interventional targets to improve mental health in this at-risk population. Whereas certain stressors are inherent to the doctoral training environment, psychosocial interventions to enhance one's sense of mastery and/or to improve advisor relationships may mitigate the influence of such stressors on burnout and depression.
虽然生物医学科学领域的博士生已被认为是心理健康问题（如倦怠和抑郁）的高风险人群，但针对这一人群，很少有研究针对干预措施的候选目标进行识别。为此，我们使用压力过程模型来评估生物医学博士生压力-倦怠和压力-抑郁关系中的潜在中介因素。采用横断面样本（n=69），完成了经过验证的压力、倦怠和抑郁症状以及掌控感、社会支持和导师支持的自我报告测量。在线性回归模型中，我们发现学业压力源对倦怠的预测作用最大，而家庭/金钱压力源对抑郁的预测作用最大。在中介模型中，我们发现压力与倦怠之间的关系部分通过掌控感和导师支持来介导，而压力与抑郁之间的关系部分通过掌控感来介导。这些发现代表了识别干预目标以改善这一高危人群心理健康的第一步。虽然某些压力源是博士培训环境所固有的，但增强个体掌控感和/或改善导师关系的心理社会干预措施可能会减轻这些压力源对倦怠和抑郁的影响。
