US faculty members report high levels of anxiety
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US faculty members self-report high levels of anxiety, which can be mitigated by strong family and social connections. Ashley L. Duffus/Getty
A pair of studies published as preprints and including data on thousands of US faculty members is revealing how anxiety manifests across academic careers. According to the studies, academics report high levels of job-related anxiety, particularly those in health disciplines. But that anxiety can be managed through access to strong familial and social support networks, the results suggest1,2.
The work was born out of the authors’ shared experiences of worries related to grant cycles and to leading a research group — concerns familiar to many faculty members.
Anietie Andy, a computer scientist at Howard University in Washington DC, and Marina Holz, a molecular physiologist at New York Medical College in Valhalla, met one day in 2024 to discuss a joint research project. While chatting, they commiserated over the stress of deadlines, promotions, mentoring students and the myriad tasks that faculty members face. They joked about shifting to a less anxiety-inducing career and then asked themselves whether such a career even exists. Do all jobs come with some level of stress, or is there something unique about academia, they wondered?
Heeding the happiness call: why academia needs to take faculty mental health more seriously