Nearly half of the scientific and technological workers interviewed are anxious about where to put the ＂green coke＂ in scientific research.

　　In the past 10 years, Zhiyan Chen, a professor at the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, led a research team to conduct three large-scale surveys on scientific and technological workers nationwide, in 2009, 2014 and 2017, respectively. The results showed that, without exception, compared with the general population in China, the mental health level of the former was slightly higher, and over 80% of scientific and technological workers were in good mental health.

　　However, vertically, compared with the results in 2009, the scores of scientific and technological workers on the mental health scale in 2014 decreased slightly. The situation in 2017 is similar to that in 2014: nearly one-fifth of scientific and technological workers have some degree of depression, 48.1% have different degrees of anxiety, and 6.8% have suicidal thoughts within one month.

　　Science and technology workers, a social group with high intelligence and pursuit of achievements, are also high-pressure people who can "sit on the cold bench and endure loneliness". The habitual overtime and lack of sleep, repeated experimental research for a long time, and the pressure of publishing papers, producing results and competing for projects have made the cold bench feel a lot of anxiety.

　　Among them, the group of young scientific and technological workers who laugh at themselves as "highland barley" and "green pepper" has gradually become "green coke". The survey found that the anxiety level of young and middle-aged scientific and technological workers is higher than that of middle-aged and old-aged scientific and technological workers.

　　Not long ago, the Report on the Development of National Mental Health in China (2017 ~ 2018), with Zhiyan Chen as the deputy editor, was officially released. This is the first blue book on mental health in China, which includes the special study on the mental health status of scientific and technological workers.

　　The three surveys conducted by the research group were mainly in the form of questionnaires, with 14,165 valid questionnaires, 7,957 valid questionnaires and 13,305 valid questionnaires, covering 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government. The average ages of the respondents were 37.6 years old, 28.3 years old and 37.1 years old respectively, focusing on young and middle-aged scientific and technological workers.

　　More than 1/5 of the scientific and technological workers interviewed are prone to depression.

　　When it comes to mental health, depression seems to be an unavoidable problem. Among the 15 "awareness of common mental diseases" evaluated by the respondents, depression has the highest awareness, while mental diseases such as panic disorder and dyslexia have the lowest awareness.

　　Zhiyan Chen said that with the intensification of social competition, accelerated pace of life and increased work pressure, depression has been called the "common cold" of mental illness in today’s era, and it is becoming more and more common among all kinds of people.

　　Scientists and technicians are no exception. According to the survey results in 2009, 17.7% of science and technology workers may have some degree of depression.

　　Further statistics show that 67.3% of scientific and technological workers do not have any persistent depressive symptoms, and 90.2% of scientific and technological workers have less than or equal to two persistent symptoms. It can be seen that most scientific and technological workers do not have persistent depression.

　　Zhiyan Chen said that depression is a multi-dimensional obstacle in physical, social and psychological aspects, which is a combination of various unpleasant reactions such as depression, depression and sadness. As a negative emotion, depression will seriously affect the individual’s cognitive style, normal studies and interpersonal activities.

　　The survey results in 2014 showed that 75.7% people had no tendency to depression; 24.4% people are prone to depression, and 4.2% of them are at high risk of depression.

　　According to further statistics, 83.3% of scientific and technological workers do not have any persistent symptoms; 96.5% of scientific and technological workers have less than or equal to two persistent symptoms. Zhiyan Chen said that this made people find once again that most scientific and technological workers do not have persistent depression.

　　The latest survey was conducted in 2017, and the results showed that 77.8% of people were not prone to depression; 22.2% people are prone to depression, and 3.2% of them have high risk of depression.

　　Zhiyan Chen said that from the survey data of three times, the survey in 2009 found that scientists and technicians had the least depression problems, while the survey results in 2014 and 2017 were similar.

　　It is worth mentioning that there are significant differences in depression scores in gender. These three surveys have found that the proportion of men with depression is higher than that of women, and the total score of depression is higher than that of women. From three specific aspects: depression, physical symptoms and lack of positive emotions, men and women show different characteristics: women are relatively more manifested in depression; Men show more physical symptoms than women; Men are less positive than women.

　　In this survey in 2017, Zhiyan Chen’s research group asked scientific and technological workers "Have you thought about suicide recently?" The results showed that 3.0% of scientific and technological workers had suicidal thoughts in the last week, 2.8% in the last month, 5.4% in the last year and 88.8% in the last year.

　　Researchers have found that the level of depression is closely related to suicidal ideation, and the suicidal ideation of depressed people is usually higher than that of the general population. Among 2941 people with high depression level, 27.1% have suicidal thoughts.

　　In terms of age, among the scientific and technological workers who have had suicidal thoughts within one month, 10% of them are those aged 35 or below, 9.5% are those aged 36-30, and 16.8% are those aged 50 or above. Science and technology workers aged 50 and above have the highest proportion of suicidal thoughts.

　　With the increase of educational background, the proportion of people who have suicidal thoughts is getting lower and lower. 40% of those with high school education or below have suicidal thoughts, which is much higher than those with other educational background. The proportion of people with bachelor degree or above who have suicidal thoughts is about 10%, among which the lowest is doctor, which is 9.6%.

　　However, suicidal thoughts are not so "scary". According to Zhiyan Chen’s explanation, the so-called suicidal thoughts refer to suicidal thoughts. Suicide thoughts have various degrees, including occasional thoughts, persistent thoughts, in-depth consideration and even detailed plans.

　　"Most people who have had suicidal thoughts will not try to commit suicide, but suicidal thoughts are one of the risk factors for suicide." Zhiyan Chen said.

　　48.1% of the science and technology workers interviewed have anxiety problems.

　　In contrast, although the "spreading degree" of anxiety is not so high, it "lurks" around people in a larger proportion and degree.

　　The latest survey in 2017 showed that 39.9% of scientific and technological workers had mild anxiety, 6.3% had moderate anxiety and 1.9% had severe anxiety. Only 51.9% of science and technology workers have no anxiety problems.

　　Zhiyan Chen said that the anxiety problem of science and technology workers is characterized by the prevalence of mild anxiety, while the more serious anxiety problems are less.

　　The scientific and technological workers investigated by her research team usually include engineers, agricultural technicians, scientific researchers, health technicians and natural science teaching staff. In fact, before this, there was a lack of mental health investigation and research on national scientific and technological workers in China.

　　Since 2002, China Association for Science and Technology has carried out a series of surveys on the status of scientific and technological workers. Among them, the survey on the status of scientific and technological workers in non-public enterprises and private non-enterprise units in 2002 and the national survey on the status of scientific and technological workers in 2003 are closely related to mental health. The survey results show that a large number of scientific and technological workers are under great pressure to report subjectively.

　　In Zhiyan Chen’s view, anxiety is a normal psychological state that everyone will experience. Moderate anxiety can improve work efficiency and solve problems more effectively. However, excessive anxiety can make people feel painful and extremely destructive, which seriously affects their study and work and makes simple tasks difficult to complete.

　　According to the survey in 2017, the anxiety level of young and middle-aged science and technology workers is high, while the anxiety level of middle-aged and old-aged science and technology workers is low. The anxiety score of the age group of 50 and above is significantly lower than that of other age groups.

　　In addition, the anxiety level of science and technology workers with graduate degree is relatively high, with the average score of 4.63 for those with master degree and 4.75 for those with doctor degree, both of which are significantly higher than the score of 4.37 for those with undergraduate degree.

　　The researchers also found that the anxiety level of those who have worked for a long time is low. The average anxiety of scientific and technological workers who have worked in their own unit for more than 30 years is 3.82 points, which is significantly lower than that of other working years.

　　24.1% of the scientific and technological workers surveyed went to bed after 24: 00.

　　These three surveys did not stop at simply presenting the mental health status of scientific and technological workers. Zhiyan Chen’s research group also tried to find out the influencing factors of scientific and technological workers’ mental health, such as daily working hours, sleep and exercise.

　　According to the survey in 2009, Chinese scientists and technicians work 8.33 1.70 hours a day on average, with a maximum of 16 hours. 55.31% of scientific and technological workers work 7-8 hours a day, 33.8% work more than 8 hours a day, and 22.61% work overtime for more than two hours a day.

　　Zhiyan Chen said that it is estimated that the average working time of Chinese scientific and technological workers is 58.31 hours per week (7 days), which is basically consistent with the situation that scientists work about 60 hours per week found by the EU project on flexibility and continuity of scientific careers.

　　The survey also found that 26.07% of science and technology workers practice flexible working hours, and their average daily working hours (8.52+1.99 hours) are longer than those who do not practice flexible working hours (8.27 1.59 hours), and the proportion of their daily working hours exceeding 10 hours is 31.20%, which is much higher than that of those who do not practice flexible working hours, which is 19.69.

　　Five years later, in 2014, the survey found that Chinese scientists and technicians worked an average of 5.5 days a week and 8.6 hours a day during working hours, which was higher than the national legal working hours of 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and 8.1 hours a day for non-scientists and technicians.

　　Specifically, 40.5% of science and technology workers work 8 hours or more every day, and 11.2% of science and technology workers work 10 hours or more every day.

　　Zhiyan Chen said that long working hours have a negative impact on mental health. With different working hours every day, the performance of scientific and technological workers in cognitive efficacy and emotional experience will be different, and so will their depression.

　　For example, within 10 hours of working every day, the emotional experience and cognitive efficacy are on the rise with the extension of working hours, and the depression is gradually decreasing. The extension of working hours has not had a negative impact on mental health, and even promoted it.

　　However, when the working hours are equal to or more than 10 hours a day, the cognitive efficacy of scientific and technological workers will decline, and their emotional experience will be poor and there will be more depression. Zhiyan Chen said, this shows that scientists and technicians work about 8 hours and no more than 10 hours a day, which is beneficial to their emotional health.

　　In terms of sleep, in the surveys in 2009, 2014 and 2017, researchers all used Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index as a measuring tool. The results of 2009 show that 17.3% of Chinese scientific and technological workers have "sleep problems"; 8.3% are in a "marginal state"; 74.5% people have normal sleep quality.

　　It is worth noting that staying up late has a negative impact on sleep quality in all aspects. Compared with those who go to bed before 23: 00, those who go to bed after 23: 00 have poor sleep quality, short sleep time, more sleep disorders and daytime dysfunction, lower sleep efficiency, and they are more dissatisfied with their sleep quality.

　　The survey results in 2014 show that the average sleep time of scientific and technological workers is 7.82 1.10 hours, and 24.4% of scientific and technological workers actually sleep less than 7 hours every night. The survey in 2017 also found that a large number of scientific and technological workers have insufficient sleep, and 8.3% of them have a serious lack of sleep time, and their daily sleep time is less than 6 hours.

　　Specifically, only 6.6% of science and technology workers will go to bed before 22: 00, 26.6% at 22-23: 00, 42.7% at 23-24: 00, and 24.1% will go to bed after 24: 00. At the same time, 16.0% of science and technology workers need half an hour or more to fall asleep.

　　In terms of gender, age, income and professional title, male science and technology workers sleep later and have shorter sleep time; Young scientists and technicians sleep the last; The group with high professional titles has the worst sleep condition; The lower the income, the worse the sleep condition; The higher the education, the more inclined you are to stay up late.

　　Zhiyan Chen said that three rounds of data show that sleep is closely related to mental health. It can be said that there is a significant positive correlation between individual sleep quality and mental health level, and the mental health level of the group with good sleep is correspondingly higher. "The longer sleep time, the less depression and anxiety; The better the quality of sleep, the lower the degree of depression and anxiety. "

　　More than half of the scientific and technological workers interviewed have psychological service needs.

　　A noteworthy phenomenon is that although many scientific and technological workers think that they have psychological problems and even need psychological services, only a few are willing to choose psychological counseling.

　　According to the survey in 2014, scientists and technicians generally feel that they need mental health knowledge in self-regulation (67.59%) and interpersonal communication (65.11%), more than half of them feel that they need vocational guidance (55.51%) and psychological services in educating children (49.18%), 43.78% think they need guidance in marriage and family relations, and 42.5% think they need psychological services.

　　According to the survey results in 2017, more than half of science and technology workers feel the need for self-regulation (56.86%), interpersonal communication (50.56%) and mental health knowledge for educating children (50.37%). The selection rate of career guidance (41.35%) and marriage and family relations (37.81%) is also around 40%.

　　However, the survey also found that most scientific and technological workers feel that they can’t get mental health services conveniently. According to the survey in 2014, although nearly half of science and technology workers think that people’s psychological problems are serious, the vast majority of science and technology workers (78.9%) feel that it is not convenient to obtain psychological counseling services, and only 21.1% of science and technology workers feel that they can obtain it conveniently. According to the survey results in 2017, most scientific and technological workers (67.2%) feel that they can’t get psychological counseling services conveniently, and only 32.8% of scientific and technological workers feel that they can get them conveniently.

　　In 2017, the research group specially investigated the obstacles of seeking help for scientific and technological workers’ psychological problems, and understood the possible concerns and difficulties that hindered Chinese scientific and technological personnel from actively seeking psychological assistance when they encountered psychological problems from the aspects of shame of seeking help for psychological problems, including stigma, influence on self-evaluation, and knowledge and understanding of professional psychological services.

　　The results show that about 20% of scientific and technological workers are worried about seeking help from psychological problems, thinking that seeking the help of psychologists will cause others to have a negative evaluation of themselves, and they will also have a negative view of themselves. Science and technology workers believe that asking for help will have a negative impact on self-evaluation. 13.3% and 12.2% of science and technology workers clearly stated that if they ask for help from psychologists, they will feel inferior or think they are not so smart.

　　This year’s survey also found that 50.2% of science and technology workers think that when they have psychological problems, they can solve them by themselves, and nearly 40% of science and technology workers say that psychological problems will be put up with once.

　　Related to this, if they can’t solve their psychological problems by themselves, about a quarter of the scientific and technological workers will have a negative evaluation of themselves, and this kind of blame and demand on themselves may be one of the reasons that cause or aggravate their psychological problems.

　　Zhiyan Chen said that if there are problems in mental health status and can’t get timely intervention, it will often cause immeasurable losses to the scientific and technological workers themselves, their families and the whole society. The goal of China’s scientific and technological development is to enter the ranks of innovative countries by 2020 and become a world scientific and technological power by the centenary of the founding of New China. This means that scientific and technological workers shoulder heavy responsibilities, and their mental health directly affects the development of innovation ability.

　　As Fu Xiaolan, director of the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, national mental health is not a simple average, but presents different characteristics among different people. The mental health of some people is related to China’s economic development, social stability and the overall rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Science and technology workers are one of them.

　　China Youth Daily Zhongqing Online Reporter Qiu Chenhui