Age, Financial Dependence, and Social Support as they relate to College Mental Health

Introduction

A vast majority of college counseling center directors (92%) reported seeing an increase in severe psychological problems among college students such as self-harm, crisis counseling, eating disorder, sexual assault cases, and a need to find referral sources for those needing long term care (Gallagher, 2006). Although it is widely accepted that young adulthood is associated with an increase of mental health problems, it is concerning that most college counseling center directors have noticed an increase in severe psychological problems at their respective institutions.

The lifetime prevalence of people 18 and older of meeting DSM-IV criteria for an anxiety disorder is 28.8% and 16.6% for major depressive disorder (Kessler, Berglund, Demler, Jin, & Walters, 2005). In the undergraduate population approximately 15% suffer from either an anxiety or depressive disorder (Eisenberg, 2007). Because the vast majority of undergraduates are over the age of 18 they are included in the 28.8% and 16.6% that suffer from an anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder respectively, but when looking just at undergraduates substantially less meet criteria for anxiety and depressive disorders. It is important to better understand what makes people susceptible to depression and anxiety so intervention efforts can be used more effectively.

It has been shown that several mental health issues (helplessness, hopelessness, depression, and loneliness) are significantly related to suicide (Westerfeld & Furr, 1987). Depressive symptoms are strongly associated with suicidal ideation, and the more depressed a person is the greater likelihood that they will report having suicidal ideations (Garlow et al., 2008). Negative affect is closely related to suicide attempts, a study conducted in a psychiatric hospital reported that higher levels of staff reported anguish and desperation positively related to suicide attempts (Herbert et al., 2004).

Reported suicide ideation is more common for those that are 18-24 than any other age group (Crosby, 1999), and was reported by 2% of college students in the last four weeks (Eisenberg, 2007). It was found in one study, with a sample consisting of 4838 college students, that 11.4 % had considered suicide, 7.9% had made a suicide plan, 1.7% had made a suicide attempt, and 0.4% had made a suicide attempts that required medical attention (Barrios, 2000). In another study similar results were found, with a sample of 1,455 college students across four universities, found that 53% of college students have been depressed and 9% reported suicidal ideation since they have been in college (Furr, Westerfeld, McConnell, and Jenkins, 2001). Suicide is the second leading cause of death for college students, only behind accidental death, making it an area of interest to mental health professionals across the United States and specifically to those that work with the college student population (Heron, 2013). While much research has been done on risk factors related to suicidal ideation, research on preventive factors is done as well.

The study of social support started to gain more attention in the mid-1970’s through the 1980’s. Social support refers to, “Various forms of aid and assistance supplied by family members, friends, neighbors, and others,” (Barrera et al., 1981). It has been found that social support is associated with mental health such that those with higher social support reported fewer mental health problems, specifically with lower amounts of depression, anxiety, and suicide as well as eating disorders (Hefner & Eisenburg, 2009). The amount of perceived social support rather than the objective or quantifiable amounts of social support received, is a better predictor when examining how social support influences mental health issues including depression and anxiety (Zimet, 1988).

Those that reported financial struggles were at greater risk for mental health problems, (Eisenberg, 2007). There have been few studies conducted that examine the influence of financial dependence on family as it relates to mental health (loneliness, depression, trait anxiety, state anxiety are major components to mental health but in no way, alone or together, do they fully represent a person’s state of mental health completely). Research has been conducted examining roles that financial stress and debt play in younger and older populations and how depression is mediating factor (Carney et al., 1994; Harwood, Hawton, Hope, Harris & Jacoby, 2006). The prevalence of mental health problems is due to psychological distress, financial struggles may contributes to psychological distress, and in turn lead to mental health issues (Stallman, 2010). Financial stress is certainly not synonymous with financial dependence, but it is possible that being, or not being, financially dependent may contribute to feeling stressed about finances. Calculating the average financial independence score (4 out of a 5-point scale) using data collected from a sample of 18-23 year olds, the majority of the sample was still financially dependent on their family, it isn’t until age 25-26 that three-fourths of young adults become completely financially independent from their families (Xiao, Chatterjee, and Kim, 2014).

The purpose of the current study is to investigate the relationship between social support, financial dependence on family, and age as they relate to loneliness, depression, trait anxiety, and state anxiety. It is not clear if social support in combination with other variables such as financial dependence on family and age can better predict aspects related to mental health (loneliness, depression, trait anxiety and state anxiety). There is support that greater levels of social support are related to lower levels of depression and anxiety. There is also support that a person’s financial situation may be related to stress and mental health. For the most part age seems to work in combination with other factors that influence levels of mental distress. By better understanding the interaction between variables and how they relate to mental health, mental health care professionals and researchers will be able to better treat problems and underlying causes as well as better identifying at risk populations.

It is hypothesized that those who are older will have greater mental health scores as measured by loneliness, depression, trait anxiety, and state anxiety, than those who are younger for low and medium social support groups, and that the difference will be greater for those that are financially dependent on their family compared to those that are not financially dependent on their family. However there will be no significant difference of in loneliness, depression, trait anxiety, and state anxiety for those that have high social support regardless of their financial dependence status. Higher scores are indicative of worse mental health. 

Abstract Introduction          Methods Loneliness Results Depression Results Trait Anxiety Results State Anxiety Results Discussion References Tables