The impact of tuition fees amount on mental health over time in British students
The impact of tuition fees amount on mental health over time in British students
Background: Previous studies have shown a relationship between debt and mental health problems in students. This study aimed to examine the effect of differences in tuition fees amounts on changes in mental health over time.
Methods: A prospective cohort study followed 390 first year British students who differed on their tuition fees level at 4 time points across their first two years at university.
Participants completed measures of global mental health, depression, anxiety, stress, alcohol related problems at two time points in their first year at university. Mixed Factorial ANOVAs were used to assess the impact of tuition fees amount on changes in scores over time.
Results: There was no difference based on fees at time 1 for anxiety stress, depression and global mental health. At time 2 those charged £0-2.9k or £3-4k improved whilst those
charged £8-9k stayed the same. However this trend partially reversed by times 3 and 4.
Conclusions: Undergraduates mental health is partially affected by the level of tuition fees, however the recent increase in tuition fees does not appear to have had a lasting impact at present.
debt, depression, mental health, student, undergraduate, financial stress
Richardson, Thomas
f8d84122-b061-4322-a594-5ef2eb5cad0d
Elliott, Peter
5822a831-b8e7-440d-9b0d-81721337a3e2
Roberts, Ron
a64219d4-a9cb-4135-b46b-57fff7347b04
2015
Richardson, Thomas
f8d84122-b061-4322-a594-5ef2eb5cad0d
Elliott, Peter
5822a831-b8e7-440d-9b0d-81721337a3e2
Roberts, Ron
a64219d4-a9cb-4135-b46b-57fff7347b04
Richardson, Thomas, Elliott, Peter and Roberts, Ron
(2015)
The impact of tuition fees amount on mental health over time in British students.
Journal of Public Health.
Abstract
Background: Previous studies have shown a relationship between debt and mental health problems in students. This study aimed to examine the effect of differences in tuition fees amounts on changes in mental health over time.
Methods: A prospective cohort study followed 390 first year British students who differed on their tuition fees level at 4 time points across their first two years at university.
Participants completed measures of global mental health, depression, anxiety, stress, alcohol related problems at two time points in their first year at university. Mixed Factorial ANOVAs were used to assess the impact of tuition fees amount on changes in scores over time.
Results: There was no difference based on fees at time 1 for anxiety stress, depression and global mental health. At time 2 those charged £0-2.9k or £3-4k improved whilst those
charged £8-9k stayed the same. However this trend partially reversed by times 3 and 4.
Conclusions: Undergraduates mental health is partially affected by the level of tuition fees, however the recent increase in tuition fees does not appear to have had a lasting impact at present.
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Published date: 2015
Keywords:
debt, depression, mental health, student, undergraduate, financial stress
Organisations:
Psychology
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 373046
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/373046
ISSN: 1741-3842
PURE UUID: 9ad62a05-20c7-41dc-8cb9-636182f024c8
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Date deposited: 06 Jan 2015 13:21
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 04:07
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Contributors
Author:
Peter Elliott
Author:
Ron Roberts
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