Lack of education is a factor known to increase the risk of certain mental health problems. According to a new study, overqualified people, i.e. those who have a higher level of education than they need for their current job, are at risk of an increased risk of depression.
The study, reported by the site LiveScience, takes into account data from more than 16,600 employees between the ages of 25 and 60 living in 21 different European countries. Researchers measured participants’ levels of depression based on their answers to questions in a survey, the results of which were announced at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.
“The reason why overqualified people are at high risk for psychological distress could be because, by definition, they are not stimulated in their jobs and cannot use all the skills they have acquired during their studies” , declares to LiveScience the researcher Piet Bracke, professor of sociology at the University of Ghent, in Belgium.
“If the number of people with a university education continues to increase and if the labor market does not follow this increase, the mental health of the population will deteriorate”, because the overqualified people need to evolve in their work, at the risk of sink into depressionconcludes the researcher.
