Pitt Richard N, Taskin Alp Yasemin, Shell Imani A
Department of Sociology, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States.
Front Psychol. 2021 Nov 16;12:750490. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.750490. eCollection 2021.
Research has shown that work-life conflicts exist among all kinds of workers, including academics, and these conflicts are a key contributor to workers' reports of poor well-being. Very little research has been done on work-life conflict among post-baccalaureate PhD trainees (e.g., graduate students and postdoctoral trainees) who reside in an important liminal stage in the professoriate pipeline. In this study, we examine the degree to which postdocs believe they suffer from conflicts between their work responsibilities and their home responsibility and the relationship between those conflicts and postdoc's mental health. We argue that, like other workers, postdocs suffer (in numerical terms and its relationship to health) more from the work-to-life imbalances than from life-to-work imbalances; life matters more than work, ultimately. Our results, based on a survey of 215 STEM postdoctoral trainees, reveal that a majority of postdocs say they have work-life conflicts and these work-life conflicts are associated with negative mental health outcomes. We discuss the potential impact of these findings on attempts to broaden participation in STEM careers and diversify the professoriate.
研究表明，包括学术界人士在内的各类工作者都存在工作与生活的冲突，而这些冲突是导致工作者幸福感不佳的关键因素。对于处于教授职业发展重要过渡阶段的博士后博士研究生（如研究生和博士后研究员）的工作与生活冲突，所做的研究极少。在本研究中，我们考察了博士后认为自己在工作职责和家庭责任之间存在冲突的程度，以及这些冲突与博士后心理健康之间的关系。我们认为，与其他工作者一样，博士后（从数量及其与健康的关系来看）更多地受工作与生活失衡之苦，而非生活与工作失衡；归根结底，生活比工作更重要。我们基于对215名STEM博士后研究员的调查结果显示，大多数博士后表示他们存在工作与生活冲突，且这些工作与生活冲突与负面心理健康结果相关。我们讨论了这些发现对扩大STEM职业参与度和教授队伍多元化尝试的潜在影响。
