Middle managers at higher anxiety, depression risk

If you have been recently promoted to a middle-management position in office, researchers have some bad news. Mid-level managers suffer higher rates of depression and anxiety than those at the top or bottom, says a new study.

“We explored how social class might influence depression and anxiety in ways that may be masked or incompletely explained by standard <g data-gr-id="20">socio-economic</g> status measures,” said first author Seth Prins from Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York, US.

This study used data on 21,859 <g data-gr-id="16">full <g data-gr-id="17">time</g></g> workers. Class designations were made by sorting respondents into three categories: Owners, who identified as self-employed and earned more than $71,500; managers and supervisors, who occupied executive, administrative or managerial positions; and workers, who were defined by various occupation categories including farmers and labourers.

Nearly twice the number of supervisors and managers reported they suffered from anxiety compared to workers.  Symptoms of depression were reported by 18 <g data-gr-id="14">per cent</g> of supervisors and managers compared to 12 percent for workers. The findings appeared online in the journal Sociology of Health & Illness.