McCloud, Tayla;
(2022)
The mental health of higher education students and the role of finances and debt.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
There have been many reports of high levels of common mental disorders (CMD) among higher education (HE) students in the United Kingdom (UK). However, it is not yet understood whether the mental health of students is worse than those who do not attend higher education. If this were the case, potential stressors particular to the HE experience, such as students’ financial situation and student loan debt, would be important avenues for further research. In Chapter 3, I investigated whether attending HE is associated with increased CMD symptoms in young people in England. I used two nationally representative datasets to compare those who attended HE with those who did not, before, during and after attendance. I found that those who attend HE have worse mental health than those who do not attend, during HE but not afterwards at age 25. In Chapter 4, I rapidly reviewed the peer-reviewed evidence on the association between financial situation and mental health among HE students in the UK. This highlighted the need for up-to-date longitudinal evidence using a range of financial situation measures. In Chapter 5, I investigated the association between four domains of financial situation and symptoms of depression in students, cross-sectionally and longitudinally. To do this, I conducted a prospective cohort study of students’ mental health (SENSE). I found that less income, more loan income, more total expected debt and experiencing more financial difficulties were all associated with more symptoms of depression in students. My findings suggest that attending HE is a potential risk factor for experiencing CMD. My findings point to financial situation as a possible stressor that may partially explain the increased mental health problems seen among students compared to their peers. This is a promising area for research, interventions, and government and institutional policies to address mental health problems among students.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | The mental health of higher education students and the role of finances and debt |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2022. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Division of Psychiatry UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10151150 |
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