Impact of lockdown on the mental health of French PhD students

As the lockdown continues, PhD students represent a population at risk of developing symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression, as well as decreased motivation for thesis work. Indeed, the thesis experience is already considered difficult as it is characterized by constant peer pressure, frequent evaluations, low status, high workload, high pressure to publish, and financial difficulties (Schmidt & Umans, 2014). COVID-19-related lockdown could reinforce these issues and impact the quality of life and work of doctoral students. Some find themselves isolated, others in poor working conditions, and others see their research interrupted. This is one of the reasons why the Minister of Higher Education, Frédérique Vidal, has just authorized the organizations and institutions that host doctoral students to extend the duration of their thesis as well as their doctoral contract. In this context, because of the duration of the lockdown, which is likely to be extended for at least some doctoral students, it is useful to identify protective factors in order to encourage the support and development of these factors. The aim of this brief survey is therefore to identify mental health as symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression, degree of mental well-being, motivation and engagement in thesis work, and protective factors like self-compassion (inverse of negative repetitive self-criticism) and savouring (capacity to savour past, present and future satisfying events).