Dive Brief:

• Over one-third of young professionals, 39%, said their colleges didn't help prepare them for the mental health challenges that can come with transitioning to the workplace, according to a new report from the Mary Christie Institute, a think tank focused on young adults' mental health.
• Just over half of respondents reported experiencing burnout at least once a week. Slightly more than half also reported needing help with emotional or mental health problems in the past year.
• College leaders should partner with employers to prioritize young people's mental health and well-being for the betterment of both higher education and the workforce, the report said.

Dive Insight:

The mental health struggles of college students have been well researched and documented, but less is known about their well-being once they've graduated, the report said.

The Mary Christie Institute partnered with the American Association of Colleges and Universities and the National Association of Colleges and Employers, along with the mental health research group, the Healthy Minds Network, to change that by conducting the new research. 

In the first week of November, researchers surveyed 1,005 adults ages 22 to 28 who held a bachelor's degree or higher.

The young professionals who did feel prepared by their colleges for the transition to working life cited their extracurriculars and the relationships they had with their peers as their two most influential experiences, the report said. Those factors outpaced mental health counseling and career services, raising questions about how those two types of support are being deployed.

But that almost 2 in 5 of those surveyed felt unprepared emotionally for the workplace should catch educators' attention, said Shawn VanDerziel, executive director of NACE.

“This is an opportunity for colleges to consider what experiences — such as internships — can help students build emotional intelligence around work and the workplace. For employers, the finding is a signal to ramp up support for all their employees and especially for new entry-level hires,” VanDerziel said.

Almost half of those surveyed, 45%, said their work environment takes a negative toll on their mental health. And 58% said their employers should invest more in mental health support. 

Women and those with financial stress reported worse mental health overall than their male and financially well-off peers. Among men, 68% reported their mental health was good or better, but only 45% of women said the same. And 61% of young professionals facing financial stress rated their mental health as fair or poor. That's compared to 31% among those with lower financial stress.

While Black young professionals reported better overall mental health than their White counterparts, they also indicated they felt less like a part of their work community and were less likely to say colleagues would support them if they were struggling.

Despite the challenges of the workplace, 53% of all respondents said their mental health is better now that they're in the workforce than it was while attending college. One-fifth said it improved significantly.