Stress and Mental Health | Reohr, Irrgang, Loskot, Siegel, Vik, and Downs
“excessive drinking or drug use” (4.4%), “death of a family member, partner, or friend” (11.4%), “issues with sexual or gender identity” (6.3%),“experiencing discrimination” (4.4%), and “feeling like you should be in college” (19.2%). For the current study, we employed a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), finding no significant mean differences between the historically marginalized and historically advantaged on these items with the exception of discrimination, F(1, 525) = 15.98, p < .001. As such, coworker problems, excessive drinking or drug use, death of a family member, partner, or friend, issues with sexual or gender identity, or feeling like you should be in college were excluded from factor analyses. Experiencing discrimination was retained.
Results A one-way ANOVA showed a significant effect of group identity (i.e., historically marginalized vs. historically advantaged) on levels of anxiety, F(1, 526) = 7.29, p = .007, η2 = .01, and depression, F(1, 526) = 5.81, p = .016, η2 = .01, such that historically advantaged students were more likely to endorse these symptoms of psychopathology. There was also a significant effect of group identity on performance stress, such that the historically marginalized students were more likely to endorse performance stress, F(1, 526) = 7.12, p = .008, η2 = .01. No significant group differences were found among eating problems, F(1, 526) = 0.00, p = .99, η2 = .00, substance problems, F(1, 526) = 0.06, p = .81, η2 = .00, interpersonal stress, F(1, 526) = 0.04, p = .84, η2 = .00, intrapersonal stress, F(1, 526) = 1.73,
p = .19, η2 = .003, or financial stress, F(1, 526) = 3.15, p = .08, η2 = .01. See Table 1 for the means and standard deviations of the MSS variables across group identity. To explore the impact of historic cultural mar ginalization on the association between stress and mental health outcomes, the mental health outcome was regressed on a model that included two covariates (age, gender) consistent with other college stress studies (Saleh et al., 2017), two main effect variables (stress, marginal cultural status), and the interaction between stress and marginal cultural status. Marginal status was coded –1 for historically marginalized cultural backgrounds and +1 for historically advantaged cultural backgrounds. Stress variables were mean-deviated to center the variable around zero (Vik, 2014). To reduce the risk of type I errors, symptoms of psychopathology, as measured by the SASS, were consolidated into two variables: “internalized symptoms” (totals scores from anxiety and depression subscales) and “behavioral excess” (totals scores from substance use and eating problem subscales). Hubbard et al. (2018) reported statistically significant correlations between all four of these subscales, and a higher correlation coefficient between depression and anxiety specifically. TABLE 2 Moderation Effect of Marginal Status on the Relationship Between Total Stress and Mental Health Outcome CI (95%) b
TABLE 1
Variable Anxiety
FALL 2023 PSI CHI JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Historically Advantaged Group
β
t
rs2
p
0.27
.01
.791
Internalized symptoms
Means and Standard Deviations of Mental Health and Stress Variables Historically Marginalized Group
Lower Upper
Covariates Gender Age
Total
0.13 −0.80
1.06
.01
0.34
0.60
.07
2.52
.07
.012
−2.03 −2.87 −1.19 −.14
0.07
−4.75
−.14
<.001
M
SD
M
SD
M
SD
Marginal Status
5.05
3.60
6.01
4.22
5.63
4.01
Total Stress
0.44
.92
−2.21
.31
<.001
−0.06 −0.12 −0.01 −.19
10.60
−.06
.028
Gender
0.00 −0.80
0.75 −.03
−0.06
.00
.950
Age
Depression
3.89
3.39
4.69
3.88
4.38
3.71
Substance Problems
Total Stress x Marginal Status
1.60
2.52
1.55
2.62
1.57
2.58
Behavioral excess
Eating Problems
5.02
3.11
5.03
3.38
5.02
3.27
Covariates
Performance Stress
10.84
5.21
9.59
5.22
10.08
5.25
Financial Stress
2.41
2.19
2.08
2.11
2.21
1.44
Interpersonal Stress
5.03
3.34
5.10
3.66
5.07
3.53
Intrapersonal Stress
4.71
3.94
5.14
3.55
4.97
3.71
Note. Historically Marginalized Group (n = 208), Historically Advantaged Group (n = 320), Total (N = 528)
0.35
0.52
0.07 −0.02
0.42
.20
1.81
.07
.071
Marginal Status
0.00 −0.67
0.73
.03
0.08
.00
.939
Total Stress
0.57
0.24 −.00
−0.16
.19
<.001
Total Stress x Marginal Status
−0.02 −0.05
0.04
5.04
−.01
.874
0.11
.17
Note. Fit for model predicting internalizing symptoms, R2 = .58, F(5, 502) = 104.91, p < .001; Fit for model predicting behavioral excess, R2 = .31, F(5, 502) = 44.38, p < .001.
183 COPYRIGHT 2023 BY PSI CHI, THE INTERNATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY IN PSYCHOLOGY (VOL. 28, NO. 3/ISSN 2325-7342)
