Psychological Distress in First Year University Students: Socioeconomic and Academic Stressors, Mastery and Social Support in Young Men and Women (REDO ARTICLE)

          The article I chose was called "Psychological Distress in First Year University Students: Socioeconomic and Academic Stressors, Mastery and Social Support in Young Men and Women." The researchers of this article were Pierre Verger, Jean-Baptiste Combes, Viviane Kovess-Masfety, Marie Choquet, Vale´rie Guagliardo, Fre´de´ric Rouillon, and Patrick Peretti-Wattel. I chose this article because I thought it would be interesting how other schools were testing stress in college students.

          This article wanted to look at stressors that dealt with first year college students on psychological distress (PD). As we all know being in college can cause many stressors in our lives. For example: leaving your parents home for the first time, being in a new environment, having to work in order to pay for school or dealing with performance pressures. Psychological distress is defined as having psychological symptoms that are indicated by poor mental health or having increased anxiety, depression, substance abuse or even personality disorders that have been associated with changing lifestyles. PD can affect both the brain and the body in many different ways such as cognitively, behaviorally, physically, and emotionally. Some examples may include memory problems such as the inability to concentration, have poorer judgment, seeing everything in a negative major, worrying more or become more anxious. Stress can also make an impact on your sympathetic nervous system and activate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. When your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is stimulated there will be a rise in stress hormones such as epinephrine, norepinephrine, and glucocorticoids.

          There were three aims in this study: "(1) assess the prevalence of PD among students during their first year of university; (2) study its associations with stressors (socioeconomic and university-related) and protective factors (mastery, social support); and (3) to compare these factors according to gender." There were a total of 2,557 students ranging from age 18 to 24 years old that were enrolled for the first time in college from one of six universities in France. Participants that were selected were mailed the goals of this study and asked if they would participate in a medicine consolation. Only 953 completed a survey during that consultation. The survey contained questions from the Mental Health Inventory, the Canadian National Population Health Survey, and a questionnaire about demographics. The researchers found that there was an increased risk to developing PD in the first year of college students. Also, it was found that having social support had both a direct and indirect effect on PD and in men there was a positive association with PD and adjustment to a new environment. However, this research failed to find any relations to socioeconomic factors.

Source:

Verger, P., Combes, J., Kovess-Masfety, V., Choquet, M., Guagliardo, V., Rouillon, F., & Peretti-Wattel, P. (2009). Psychological distress in first year university students: socioeconomic and academic stressors, mastery and social support in young men and women. Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology, 44(8), 643-650. doi:10.1007/s00127-008-0486-y