Stress and family relationships among college student parents: A mixed methods study

Abstract

College student parents represent a unique population because they are typically low-income, accrue more debt than traditional students, and must balance the role of student and parent. Using a mixed methods design, this study examined the relation between college student parents’ stress and distress in their relationships with their children and examined how parents managed their multiple roles. Parent participants ( n = 80; 54 mothers, 26 fathers; M age = 28.74 years, SD = 4.72) completed an online survey and a subsample ( n = 14) participated in semi-structured interviews. Results revealed that college student parents experience a variety of stressors that spillover into their relationships with their children and these associations appear more detrimental for father-child relationships. However, in-depth qualitative interviews not only highlighted the various sources of stress (e.g., time demands, multiple roles), but also revealed internal and external resources that college student parents draw on to help cope with stressors. Findings suggest that program efforts to strengthen the co-parenting relationship and to help college student parents more effectively manage their stress may be beneficial for improved parent-child relationships.

Adaptation and Validation of the Academic Stress Scale in the Italian Context: Latent Structure, Reliability, and Concurrent Validity

“…Unexpected results emerge from the family relationship dimension, i.e., the tendency to involve one’s parents in one’s university career, which seems to increase stress levels in four out of six sub-dimensions. These results could be explained by the fact that, although social support is a protective factor for the development of stress [ 69 , 77 , 78 ], it is possible that the involvement of one’s own family members does not take on a supportive function but on the contrary increases stress in students [ 171 , 172 ]. Remaining on the relational level, however, the ability to relate to lecturers is a “protective factor” in no less than five areas of academic stress, except for exam anxiety.…”