The relationship between financial strain, perceived stress, psychological symptoms, and academic and social integration in undergraduate students

Abstract

Objective-Financial strain may directly or indirectly (i.e., through perceived stress) impact students' psychological symptoms and academic and social integration, yet few studies have tested these relationships. We explored the mediating effect of perceived stress on the relationship between financial strain and two important outcomes: psychological symptomology and academic and social integration.Participants-Participants were 157 undergraduate students. Data were collected from December 2013 to March 2014.Methods-Cross-sectional data collection conducted using online survey software.Results-We found that perceived stress mediated the relationship between financial strain and (a) psychological symptomology and (b) academic and social integration. Both models included first-generation status as a covariate.Conclusions-Results suggest that perceived stress is an important intervention target for reducing psychological symptoms and improving academic and social integration for undergraduate students. Implications for university health centers and mental health professionals include incorporating a public health model to minimize stress risk.

Sleep in the Social World of College Students: Bridging Interpersonal Stress and Fear of Missing Out with Mental Health

“…This is perhaps not surprising, as the construct of interpersonal stress encompasses a broad swath of experiences with one's family, friends, significant other, and people in the larger social world. A majority of young adults must independently navigate new and complex social demands that require the development of sophisticated social skills such as role-taking and conflict management [18,27], and these challenges may generate interpersonal stress across many domains of life. In contrast, FoMO may tend to emerge more readily among a subset of students who have low levels of life satisfaction, self-competence, autonomy, or connection to others, and/or low mood [27], and/or it may be generated in a selective set of interactions or experiences that promote social comparison, such as the use of social media [40].…”

“…College students experience an array of transient and persistent types of modifiable stressors [18]. Among these, interpersonal stressors, which are negative experiences involving conflicts or difficulties in social relationships, may be particularly salient [19].…”

Emotional overeating is common and negatively associated with alcohol use in normal-weight female university students

“…High school and university students have to cope with many issues such as academic pressure, autonomy from parents, financial difficulties, and social competition or isolation, among others (D. R. Adams, Meyers, & Beidas, 2016;Boujut & Bruchon-Schweitzer, 2009). Many of them engage in physical and social activities to relieve stress and get social support (Decamps, Boujut, & Brisset, 2012).…”

Support Buffers Financial Strain's Effect on Health-related Quality of Life

“…Thus, despite the current study being guided by influential theoretical work, current findings cannot refute the possibility that the studied variables may operate through an indirect pathway that leads to poorer health-related quality of life, potentially through perceived stress. 54 To comprehensively evaluate the potential mediating pathways that may explain the observed relations, future work should be devoted to examining a conceptual moderated-mediation model that considers the effect of financial strain and social support in addition to potential mediators, such as perceived stress, on health-related quality of life outcomes. Fourth, the current sample size did not permit inclusion of additional variables that may have influenced findings.…”