The confinement is said to have worsened mental health problems among graduate students, especially women.
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This is what the conclusions of a study led by researchers from McGill University, the University of Montreal and the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi reveal the study published in the journal “Preventive Medicine Report”, Monday.
The lockdown would have deeply shaken the work-family balance for many graduate students, widening inequalities and exacerbating mental health problems, the researchers said.
The McGill study would be one of the first to examine stressors by gender and work-family balance during a pandemic.
“Graduate students are particularly affected by mental health problems, and our work suggests that the pandemic may have made matters worse and accentuated gender inequalities,” said the study’s lead author. Jaunathan Bilodeau who is also a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Sociology at McGill University.
Adjusting to distance education would have been more stressful for women. They would have manifested more numerous symptoms of depression linked either directly to the remote mode or indirectly to the difficult work-family balance.
The men, however, say they lacked emotional support during the pandemic.
Despite their greater concern, women were more emotionally supported than their male counterparts.
“Our study highlights the detrimental effects of confinement on men’s mental health as well. It highlights the link between their mental health and exposure to well-defined stress factors, on the one hand, as well as the lack of resources, on the other hand, ”explained Amélie Quesnel-Vallée, holder of the Chair. Canadian Research Institute in Health Policy and Social Inequalities at McGill University.
The study also showed that men found it more difficult to separate family and professional life. “This situation may be due to the fact that before and during the pandemic, the line between work and personal life was more or less porous. […]. Before the pandemic, men may have drawn a sharper line between family and work. The disappearance of this partition during confinement has undoubtedly dealt a hard blow to the tightness between these two parts of their life, ”argued Jaunathan Bilodeau.