Credit card debt stress and key health risk behaviors among the college students

Authors

Nelson, Lust, Story & Ehlinger

Y.O.P: 2008

Purpose of the study

The study was mainly focused on college students with a primary aim of examining the relationship between credit card debts and stress together with other health-related behaviors. The research focuses mostly on how the college life environment has a unique combination of various risk factors due to a lifestyle that will eventually result in long-term and short-term impacts on their lives. College life seems to impose a more constraint on the individual time, capabilities and their resources. The author thus seeks to understand how financial issues contribute to the risky behaviors that student on campus exhibit. The author takes a particular interest in credit card debt effects on the student.

The hypothesis of the study

The first hypothesis of the study was that there is a directly proportional relationship between the amount of debt and the health-risk attributes. The study assumes that the higher the amount of debt the most likely they are to suffer from some health conditions such as overweight, obesity and also stress. The second hypothesis of the study is that the magnitude of the credit card debt is controlled by the sociodemographic characteristics of the population.  In this, the study assumes that it is the sociodemographic characteristics of the student population that determine the amount of debt they exhibit.

Characteristics of the subjects

The study was composed of close to 3206 participants. The study approximated 39% of them as male and the rest female. More to this close to 63% of the participants were undergraduate students while the rest were close to 36% of them were graduates. 78% of the participants in the study were Caucasian while the remaining 22% were from the other races among them being black, America, Indian and many others.

Results of the study

The study showed that close to 23% of the students had reported as a having a credit card debt. The study also showed that there was a close relationship between the credit and the prevalence of specific health-related factors such as obesity/overweight, reduced physical activity, and other lifestyle-related behaviors. The study, therefore, worked to conclude that the increasing rate of adverse health indicator in college students is mainly caused by the stress and the increased credit card debt that they owe to several companies. The study, therefore, suggested that the intervention strategies that are proposed to solve the issue should work in the context of the many challenges that they face in life. These factors hinder a healthy lifestyle from the students. As a conclusion that the primary target areas that should be considered by the intervention plans range from financial management, stress and the other weight-related behaviors.

Application of the study

The results that have been found from the research are essential for various reasons. Among them is that these result will be used by intervention programs to come up with the correct techniques on how to deal with an issue that affects students. This is especially when dealing with health-related behaviors.

Most interesting aspects of the research

The most exciting point of the study is how the credit debt of the students affects their body mass index.  Body Mass Index has been for a long time been associated with other factors rather than a credit card debt. Future research should look into all the factors that are associated with body mass index and how it is a crucial determinant of college students health.