Familial and Parental Relationships Can Ease Anxiety Among Academics in the United States

Anxiety among academic faculty remains a critical yet understudied public health concern because of comorbidity with depression and other mental health disorders. Here, we present the largest study to date examining faculty anxiety, analyzing data from 2,106 professors across 62 U.S. higher education institutions using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) assessment. This comprehensive dataset revealed previously unknown patterns in how familial relationships and academic lineage influence faculty anxiety. Our analysis uncovered a clear relationship between academic rank and anxiety levels, with tenure-track assistant professors showing the highest anxiety scores (predicted GAD-7 = 7.9) compared to full professors. While academic discipline explains only 0.32% of anxiety variance, we identify institutional factors and family support as major moderators of faculty mental health. We find that close family relationships significantly moderated anxiety across institution types, with particularly strong protective effects at HBCUs/HSIs (b = -4.24, p = .015). Having an academic parent emerged as a novel protective factor, especially for faculty in STEM and Humanities (p < .018 and p < .010, respectively). These findings address a crucial gap in understanding faculty mental health and suggest that institutions should implement targeted interventions focusing on reinforcing social support systems, particularly for early-career academics.