JENNY SMITH CAROLINE SMITH GEORGE SANDERS AMELIA THORNTON EMMA CLYDE-SMITH The Impact of Financial Circumstances on Student Health Jessop, Herberts, & Solomon (2005)

Agenda Summary of study Is this study relevant? Critique of:  Participants & Design  Materials  Results Does the data justify the conclusions? Suggestions References

Summary of Study Predictions: Finnish students would report less debt and less financial concern than UK students Hypothesis 1: Finnish students should experience better mental and physical health than their UK counterparts Hypothesis 2: Financial hardship and financial concern should predict mental and physical health Method: 98 Finnish students and 89 UK students completed a questionnaire Results: British students reported greater levels of debt and financial concern

Is this paper relevant? Higher Education Act University fees increase from £1125 to £3000 Fees may cause substantial debt Evidence that financial concern of UK students effects their health (Roberts et al, 2000; Cooke et al., 2004) Important topic, but does it add anything new? Roberts et al. (2000) insinuated that there appears “to be grounds for linking this adverse health to the experience of financial difficulties” Marriot (2007) found that student debt may have a detrimental impact on the academic performance and psychological well-being of students

Participants Middlesex University may not be a good representation of all students from the UK Likewise with Abo Akademi in Finland Good judgement to exclude overseas students 187 students is not a large enough cohort Opportunity sample. Fair split between British students and Finnish students – 89 versus 98

Participants Male to female ratio of 1:2.28 makes the study more reflective of females  “Women are twice as likely as men to experience depression” (Nolen- Hoeksema, 2001) Suitable age range from years old Mean age of sample was 24.9 years old No indication of postgraduate or undergraduate  Many studies have shown that students from different year groups have different attitudes towards debt (Lea et al., 2001; Cooke et al., 2004)  This study should have collected data on what year the participants are in to make it more reliable

Materials Some of the measures are replications of Roberts et al. (2000) Additional measures:  Perceived control  Amount of debt – approximate  Financial concern – built upon Roberts et al. (2000) measure of ‘difficulty in paying bills’ No example questions provided for some measures, and no full questionnaire provided  Framing effects?  Reverse scoring?  Open-ended questions?

Materials All measures were tested for internal reliability  Mental and physical health was only ‘acceptable’ Health measure was self report It has been found that there is significant error between perceived and actual health  Butler, Burkhauser, Mitchell and Pincus (1987) Questionnaire was to complete in ‘their own time’  Beginning versus end of term  Beginning versus end of month

Design Was the study design appropriate for the research question?  Quick and cost effective  Response rates?  Design of questions is unknown  Self-report  Subjective?  Validity?

Results British students reported a greater amount of debt than the Finnish students British students had lower average scores on the Short Form 36 Health Survey than Finnish students  Lower scores represent worse health  Found that financial concern was the best predictor of mental and physical health  Limitations of multiple regression:  Correlational not causational: It has been found that social support correlates with student burnout (Jacobs, 2003)

Results British students reported smoking and drinking more than Finnish students 64% of British students worked in addition to study compared with 46.9% of Finnish students Perceived control did not differ significantly between the British and Finnish students

Does the data justify the conclusions? (1) Finnish students should experience better mental and physical health than their UK counterparts  Data supports the hypothesis (2) Financial hardship and financial concern should predict mental and physical health  Statistical data supports the hypothesis  Underlying causations  Increased sample size

Suggestions When comparing student debt you must take other factors into consideration. The paper fails to account for the possibility that students with higher financial concern might be generally more anxious. The researchers should have asked the participants what degree course they were studying. Objective health measures Recent fee rise

References Butler, J. S., Burkhauser, R. V., Mitchell, J. M., & Pincus, T. P. (1987). Measurement error in self-reported health variables. The review of economics and statistics, 69(4), Cooke, R., Barkham, M., Audin, K., Bradley, M. & Davy, J. (2004). Student debt and its relation to student mental health. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 28(1), Jacobs, S., & Dodd, D. (2003). Student burnout as a function of personality, social support, and workload. Journal of College Student Development, 44(3), Jessop, D. C., Herberts, C., & Solomon, L. (2005). The impact of financial circumstances on student health. British Journal of Health Psychology, 10,

References Marriott, P. (2007). An Analysis of First Experience Students' Financial Awareness and Attitude to Debt in a Post-1992 UK University. Higher Education Quarterly, 61, Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2001). Gender Differences in Depression. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 10, Roberts, R., Golding, J., Towell, T., Reid, S., Woodford, S., Vetere, A., & Weinreb, I. (2000). Mental and physical health in students: The role of economic circumstances. British Journal of Health Psychology, 5, Usher, A. (2005). Global Debt Patterns: An International Comparison of Student Loan Burdens and Repayment Conditions. Toronto, ON: Educational Policy Institute.

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