The Relationship Between Financial Worries and Psychological Distress Among U.S. Adults
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Connects with: @adams2016 @archuleta2013 @bradshaw2010 @butterworth2009 @drentea2015 @hamilton2019 @kahn2006 @marshall2021 @park2017 @prawitz2006 @prentice2017 @selenko2011 @shapiro2012 @sinclair2010 @starrin2009 @szanton2010 @tran2018 @viseu2021 @weissman2020
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ryu2023 - p. 18
Social stress theory explains that disadvantaged populations could experience mental health problems due to their greater vulnerability to stress and fewer coping resources (Mossakowski, 2014).
ryu2023 - p. 19
Prior studies have documented that women are at higher risk of experiencing mental health problems than men, including psychological distress, depression, anxiety, and mood disorders (Ferraro & Nuriddin, 2006; Goldberg et al., 1988; Kessler, 2003; Madden, 2010; Matud et al., 2015; Seedat et al., 2009). Women also suffer from greater structural strain and hardship due to gender inequality, which increases the risk of adverse health outcomes (Ross & Huber, 1985).
ryu2023 - p. 19
arriage influences various dimensions of individuals’ lives. Compared to unmarried individuals, married individuals report a lower risk of long-term illness, disability, physical problems, and death from various causes (Murphy et al., 1997; Waite & Lehrer, 2003).
ryu2023 - p. 19
Individuals who are better educated tend to have higher debt compared to those with lower education (Chawla & Uppal, 2012). However, they are also more likely to know how to avoid and cope with adverse situations (Aneshensel, 2009).
ryu2023 - p. 19
Employment provides an important source of income that offsets debt (Hamilton et al., 2019), which may decrease worries related to financial strains. Moreover, it allows individuals to build up social networks and establish social status that can support both economic and mental health well-being (Selenko & Batinic, 2011). A growing body of literature suggests that unemployment has significantly adverse effects on mental health.
ryu2023 - p. 19
Total debt is found to be higher among homeowners and those in higher-income households compared to renters and members of lower-income households (Chawla & Uppal, 2012; Cox et al., 2007). However, this is likely because they have higher values of properties, assets, and income. Additionally, they are financially less vulnerable to changes in macroeconomic and financial conditions (Cox et al., 2007). Therefore, the burden of debt and perceived stress related to debt could be lower among homeowners and higherincome households compared to renters and members of lower-income households (Hamilton, 2019).
ryu2023 - p. 20
Using nationally representative data, the current study fills in the gaps in this research area by focusing on the relationship between financial worries and psychological distress and the potential moderators in this relationship, which is an understudied topic among U.S. populations.
ryu2023 - p. 20
there is a positive relationship between financial worries and psychological distress
Note: hypothesis
ryu2023 - p. 20
the association between financial worries and psychological distress is greater for particular subpopulations based on their socio-economic characteristics
Note: hypothesis
ryu2023 - p. 20
The data were obtained from the annual National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) in 2018. The NHIS is a crosssectional survey that is nationally representative of the civilian, non-institutionalized U.S. population. The NHIS is conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The survey employs multistage probability sampling and stratification, clustering, and oversampling.
ryu2023 - p. 20
Psychological distress was assessed using the Kessler 6 Scale (K6). The scale (Kessler et al., 2002) is composed of six indicators of psychological and emotional state. Respondents reported how often they felt nervous, hopeless, restless, depressed, worthless, or that “everything was an effort” within a 30-day recall period.
ryu2023 - p. 20
We assessed financial worries using six questions1 regarding the levels of worry based on concerns about personal and healthcare associated financial matters: (1) maintaining a standard of living, (2) paying medical costs from illness/accident, (3) paying for housing (rent, mortgage, etc.), (4) paying medical costs for health insurance, (5) having enough money for retirement, and (6) paying monthly bills. All questions were answered on a 4-point scale, where 1 = “not worried at all”, 2 = “not too worried”, 3 = “moderately worried”, and 4 = “very worried”. An aggregate score was created ranging from 6 to 24, with a higher score indicating greater financial worries (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.92; range 6 to 24)
ryu2023 - p. 20
Demographic and socio-economic characteristics included age, gender, race, marital status, number of children under 18 in the family, region of residence, education, household income, employment status, and homeownership.
ryu2023 - p. 21
For moderators, we used gender, marital status, education, employment status, household income levels, and home ownership.
ryu2023 - p. 21
Model 1 estimated the associations between financial worries and psychological distress without any covariates. Model 2 added demographic characteristics (i.e., age, gender, race, marital status, the number of children in the household, region of residence) and socio-economic characteristics (i.e., education, employment status, household income, and homeownership) to Model 1, while Model 3, the full model, added health-related variables (i.e., self-reported health status, the number of chronic conditions, and having health insurance coverage) to Model 2. Finally, we examined the interaction terms to test for the moderating effects of gender, marital status, education, employment status, household income, and home ownership for the association between financial worries and psychological distress.