Since its founding in 1985, China’s Post-doc system has cultivated a total of 13,100 high-level professionals, a national conference of postdocs revealed recently. The program’s establishment was given the green lig...Since its founding in 1985, China’s Post-doc system has cultivated a total of 13,100 high-level professionals, a national conference of postdocs revealed recently. The program’s establishment was given the green light by Deng Xiaoping in 1985 in response to a suggestion by Prof. Tsung Dao Lee, a Nobel physics prize laureate. Starting from scratch, so far 798 programs for postdocs have been established, to be distributed in展开更多
Background:Thepostdoctoral workforce has been expanding worldwide,playing a vital role in scientific progress,innovation,and knowledge dissemination.Nevertheless,their mental health is also increasingly a global conce...Background:Thepostdoctoral workforce has been expanding worldwide,playing a vital role in scientific progress,innovation,and knowledge dissemination.Nevertheless,their mental health is also increasingly a global concern,exacerbated by challenges such as intense competition,growing responsibilities,and pressure to publish.Purpose:Research on work characteristics is essential for guiding policy and interventions,offering valuable insights into the factors that affect postdoctoral researchers’mental health.Hence,this study aims to examine the impact of work characteristics on postdocs’mental health and explore the underlyingmechanisms drawing on the Job Demands-Resources(JD-R)model.Methods:Using data from Nature’s 2020 Global Postdoc Survey,this study examines how work-related factors influence mental health through regression analysis and percentile bootstrap methods,and eight hypotheses are proposed.Results:Working hours,overtime frequency,and job insecurity negatively predicted postdocs’work-life balance satisfaction and directly increased the likelihood of mental health problems.Mentor support,job autonomy,and rewards enhanced work-life balance satisfaction and directly decreased the possibility of mental health problems.All six job characteristics indirectly influenced postdocs’mental health through worklife balance satisfaction.Working hours had a stronger negative impact on work-life balance satisfaction for female postdocs,while job insecurity had a stronger negative impact onmale postdocs’work-life balance satisfaction.However,no significant gender differences were found in the impact of overtime frequency on work-life balance satisfaction.Conclusion:Job demands(working hours,overtime frequency,and job insecurity)significantly increased postdocs’mental health problems whereas job resources(mentor support,job autonomy,and rewards)mitigated these problems.All these impacts were mediated through work-life balance satisfaction.Gender differences were evident regarding the relationship between job demands(working hours and job insecurity)andwork-life balance satisfaction.These findings provide a basis for future research on the broader causal relationships between work characteristics and postdocs’mental health,as well as studies examining variations across countries,cultures,and disciplines.This study also offers actionable recommendations for institutions,funding agencies,and mentors to foster better working conditions to improve postdocs’well-being.展开更多
文摘Since its founding in 1985, China’s Post-doc system has cultivated a total of 13,100 high-level professionals, a national conference of postdocs revealed recently. The program’s establishment was given the green light by Deng Xiaoping in 1985 in response to a suggestion by Prof. Tsung Dao Lee, a Nobel physics prize laureate. Starting from scratch, so far 798 programs for postdocs have been established, to be distributed in
文摘Background:Thepostdoctoral workforce has been expanding worldwide,playing a vital role in scientific progress,innovation,and knowledge dissemination.Nevertheless,their mental health is also increasingly a global concern,exacerbated by challenges such as intense competition,growing responsibilities,and pressure to publish.Purpose:Research on work characteristics is essential for guiding policy and interventions,offering valuable insights into the factors that affect postdoctoral researchers’mental health.Hence,this study aims to examine the impact of work characteristics on postdocs’mental health and explore the underlyingmechanisms drawing on the Job Demands-Resources(JD-R)model.Methods:Using data from Nature’s 2020 Global Postdoc Survey,this study examines how work-related factors influence mental health through regression analysis and percentile bootstrap methods,and eight hypotheses are proposed.Results:Working hours,overtime frequency,and job insecurity negatively predicted postdocs’work-life balance satisfaction and directly increased the likelihood of mental health problems.Mentor support,job autonomy,and rewards enhanced work-life balance satisfaction and directly decreased the possibility of mental health problems.All six job characteristics indirectly influenced postdocs’mental health through worklife balance satisfaction.Working hours had a stronger negative impact on work-life balance satisfaction for female postdocs,while job insecurity had a stronger negative impact onmale postdocs’work-life balance satisfaction.However,no significant gender differences were found in the impact of overtime frequency on work-life balance satisfaction.Conclusion:Job demands(working hours,overtime frequency,and job insecurity)significantly increased postdocs’mental health problems whereas job resources(mentor support,job autonomy,and rewards)mitigated these problems.All these impacts were mediated through work-life balance satisfaction.Gender differences were evident regarding the relationship between job demands(working hours and job insecurity)andwork-life balance satisfaction.These findings provide a basis for future research on the broader causal relationships between work characteristics and postdocs’mental health,as well as studies examining variations across countries,cultures,and disciplines.This study also offers actionable recommendations for institutions,funding agencies,and mentors to foster better working conditions to improve postdocs’well-being.
