A new study in England found that working longer hours may be linked to a greater risk of depression, which could have implications for college students around the country.
The study was part of the Whitehall II series, which began in 1985 and examines the health of about 10,000 English civil servants. The researchers found that workers who worked eleven hours per day were 2.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with depression than those who worked seven-eight hour days. The study cited several potential causes for the correlation, including conflicts between work and family and higher productions of cortisol, a hormone produced in greater amounts during stressful situations.
Suicide is the second-highest cause of deaths on college campuses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2010, then-Weinberg sophomore Rebecca Quint committed suicide in her Foster-Walker dorm room.
Feinberg prof. Michael Fleming was the lead author of a 2010 study which found that one out of every four to five college students who visits a campus health center is depressed. In the paper, Fleming argued that depression screenings should be mandatory for every student who is treated at the centers.
“It’s an opportunity to identify high-risk students before they get into bad situations,” Fleming told The Daily at the time.
Weinberg freshman Sara Fadlalla said she has had to budget her time more effectively since coming to NU to avoid becoming overextended.
“College is different because you only have class a couple of times a week, so you have a lot more work that you have to be responsible for doing,” Fadlalla said. “It was hard for me to manage what I should do and when I should do it for each class, and then on top of that also trying to be in several different extracurricular activities.”
Fadlalla noted that there are activities she has not been able to do on campus because of her increased academic burden. She questioned whether the NU community does enough to supported students who are feeling overwhelmed.
“I don’t know if there’s enough awareness, but I definitely feel that there’s a lot of options to get help,” she said. “But that definitely puts a lot of the responsibility on the person who is feeling overwhelmed to actually seek that help.”
According to the National Survey of Student Engagement for 2011, full-time college students spend an average of 15 hours per week studying and 13 hours per week working, in addition to time spent in class.
