"What makes them suffer?: Individual and institutional predictors of distress in French doctoral students"

The Deputy Head of the Laboratory Evegny Osin  made a report about the factors contributing to difficulties experienced by doctoral students at French higher educational institutions.

Few studies (organized by Dr. Pascale Haag - EHESS, Paris, France) have focused on PhD students in France despite the fact that this population appears to be particularly vulnerable to stress and often faces precariousness. 

The first study (N=1,923) found that students experiencing higher levels of stress and somatic symptoms were at more advanced stages of their PhD, unsatisfied with the quality of supervision, and not involved in physical activity. Distress and somatic symptoms were associated with gender and field of study, but not with the source of funding or distance from home. The second study (N=544) found that satisfaction with studies was strongly associated with the quality of working alliance with PhD supervisor, which was only high in first-year students. The findings of the two studies suggest that progression through graduate school is a highly challenging process, which may have adverse effects on students' health and well-being, especially when the quality of supervision is low.