Counseling psychology trainees’ experiences with debt stress: A mixed methods examination.

Abstract

Financial debt accrued by graduate psychology students has increased in recent years and is a chief concern among psychology trainees (El-Ghoroury, Galper, Sawaqdeh, & Bufka, 2012). This study examined debt stress among counseling psychology trainees using a complementary mixed methods research design. Qualitative analyses (N = 11) using the consensual qualitative research method (CQR; Hill, Thompson, & Williams, 1997; Hill et al., 2005) revealed six domains, 15 categories, and 34 subcategories. Domains included social class contributions, institutional contributions, long-term effects, coping mechanisms, personal relationships, and effect on well-being. The transactional model of stress and coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) and social class worldview model (Liu, Soleck, Hopps, Dunston, & Pickett, 2004) guided quantitative analyses. Results of a path analysis (N = 285) indicated total debt and subjective social class were significant predictors of debt stress and that the relationship between debt stress and psychological distress was mediated by avoidant coping. Avoidant coping also moderated the association between debt stress and psychological distress. Results are discussed in relation to professional training and the career development of counseling psychology trainees.

A plan for addressing the student debt crisis in psychological graduate training: Commentary on “Graduate debt in psychology: A quantitative analysis” (Doran et al., 2016).

“…This change would be similar to the APA requirement for reporting of internship match rates and we believe would be beneficial for students from an ethical perspective. That is, because student debt appears to be related to career choice satisfaction (Doran et al, 2016) as well as psychological distress (Olson-Garriott, Garriott, Rigali-Oiler, & Chao, 2015) in psychology trainees, training cost transparency would be congruent with the ethical principle of beneficence and nonmaleficence (APA, 2010).…”

On the Relation Between Over-Indebtedness and Well-Being: An Analysis of the Mechanisms Influencing Health, Sleep, Life Satisfaction, and Emotional Well-Being

“…Furthermore, although prior research (e.g., O’Neill et al, 2005 ; Zhang and Kemp, 2009 ; Drentea and Reynolds, 2012 ; Hogan et al, 2013 ; Olson-Garriott et al, 2015 ; see Tay et al, 2017 , for a review) has used different measures of well-being to understand how people think and feel about their lives, it has not clearly distinguished between the impact of over-indebtedness on two qualitatively different facets of SWB: life satisfaction (based on a global evaluation by the individual of his/her life) and emotional well-being (the affect experienced by an individual on a more day-to-day basis; Pavot and Diener, 1993 ; Kahneman and Riis, 2005 ). Nonetheless, life satisfaction and emotional well-being are different constructs with moderate to high discriminant validity ( Lucas et al, 1996 ; see also Dolan et al, 2017 ).…”

The making of financial subjects: A phenomenological study of student debt

“…Research in this vein also suggests that debt may influence students' experiences of adult life, and of university education itself. Students report delaying life milestonessuch as living apart from parents, owning a home, having children, and getting married-due to indebtedness (Doran et al, 2016a;Gicheva, 2013;Olson-Garriott et al, 2015). Debt appears to discourage prospective students from attending university, and it appears to engender doubt, regret, and worry among students who do attend, which can detrimentally affect school achievement (Callender & Jackson, 2005;Gerrard & Roberts, 2006;Ross et al, 2006).…”