Overeducated and Unhappy

Highly-educated Americans may earn more money, but they're also in
for more misery, according to new research from the Stanford School of
Medicine. The findings indicate that people with advanced degrees are at
greater risk for mental health problems than the rest of the US.
Employees at a Northern California office where 51 percent of workers had
a master's or doctoral degree were evaluated for their overall mental
health status. The highly educated workforce scored well below the
national average.

"Unfortunately, we don't know why," says study author Cheryl
Koopman, PhD. "Possibly it has to with the nature of the kind of work
that the highly educated do." Koopman and principal investigator Robert
Matano, Ph.D., originally set out to research if interventions--such as
treating alcoholism or learning better coping strategies--could help
treat mental health problems at work. The link to education came up
unexpectedly.

Overall, those with advanced degrees fell into the 32nd percentile,
18 points below the national average. Those who had recently completed
their graduate programs were at greatest risk for mental health problems.
The researchers attribute this to a lack of experience in coping with
life's hardships.

Interestingly, women with advanced degrees seemed to be doing
better than men when it came to mental health. However, the researchers
noted that the study was very limited in scope, having examined only a
single company. Further studies would be needed to confirm the
findings.