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Working college students were more likely to have mental health problems if they had toxic relationships with co-workers than if they were on friendly terms with colleagues. To understand the connection between students’ relationships at work and their mental health, the small new U.S study surveyed 170 working students enrolled in an introductory psychology class in March 2011.

“If you think about a typical 24-hour day for a college student, aside from sleeping, students are going to school and studying and also working part-time, four hours a day on average,” said lead study author Allison Vaughn, a psychology researcher at San Diego State University.

“It makes sense that the people a college student works with would also have the potential to be health-relevant,” she added. “Students who need to work their way through school should try to make the most of these workplace relationships, just as you would with any friendship or romantic relationship.”

Many college students work while enrolled in a school, with estimates ranging from 58 percent to 72 percent of undergraduates. Working at least 20 hours a week is also a reality for 24 percent to 47 percent of these students.

The questionnaires touched on the quality of relationships with supervisors and up to three co-workers, job satisfaction and mental health issues such as stress, depression and anxiety.

Students ranged in age from 18 to 35, and on average were about 20 years old. Most participants worked part-time, averaging about 19 hours a week, and had typically held their current jobs for about 15 months.

Generally, the students rated their supervisors as being moderately or very helpful and their co-workers as being only slightly upsetting. They described the majority of their work relationships as supportive, or were ambivalent.

Participants who were ambivalent about their supervisors had poorer mental health than their peers who had positive relationships with their bosses.

The students who felt ambivalent also had lower job satisfaction and less support, more thoughts about leaving the job and more burnout.

Results for coworkers were similar, with ambivalent relationships linked to worse mental health.

The students who had more supportive relationships at work had fewer symptoms of stress, lower depression and anxiety and higher satisfaction with life, the authors noted.

The study is small, and does not prove a cause-and-effect connection between troubles at work and poor mental health, the researchers warn. It is also possible that students’ perceptions of their work relationships do not match up with reality, they acknowledge.

“Perceptions of relationships may be colored by mental health, so it might actually be that students with better mental health or higher self-confidence to start with interpreted relationships at work as being more positive in general,” said Kathy Rospenda, a researcher in psychiatry and psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Even so, the findings add to a growing body of evidence that negative experiences at work can contribute to mental health problems among students Rospenda added

At the same time, students who work more hours also have to be conscious of how work can impact their mental health. Furthermore, Students who work full-time may not have time to sleep, eat well, exercise and engage in pleasant activities. Neglect of these areas may lead to low energy, irritability, and poor concentration and academic performance and overall dissatisfaction.

Source: College Students With Toxic Work Environments Fare Far Worse Mentally