Rubin Mark
School of Psychology, Behavioural Sciences Building, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308 Australia.
SN Soc Sci. 2021;1(1):20. doi: 10.1007/s43545-020-00031-3. Epub 2020 Dec 10.
Previous research has found a positive association between social class and mental health among university students. Various mediators of this association have been proposed. However, the extent to which students perceive these mediators as having an impact on their mental health has not been investigated. It is important to investigate this issue because students who do not perceive issues as having an impact on their mental health may not be motivated to address those issues. In the current study, 402 first-year undergraduate psychology students from a large Australian university indicated the extent to which 32 issues had a negative impact on their mental health over the past six months. Students rated lack of money, time management, coursework assessment items, lack of sleep, and course marks as having the largest impact on their mental health. Lack of money and time management mediated the positive association between subjective social status and mental health over (a) the past week and (b) the past month. Coursework assessment items and course marks mediated the positive association between subjective social status and satisfaction with the university experience. It is concluded that interventions should focus on these relatively high impact issues in order to address social class differences in students' mental health and university satisfaction.
先前的研究发现，大学生的社会阶层与心理健康之间存在正相关关系。人们提出了这种关联的各种中介因素。然而，学生们认为这些中介因素对其心理健康产生影响的程度尚未得到研究。调查这个问题很重要，因为那些不认为某些问题会对其心理健康产生影响的学生可能没有动力去解决这些问题。在当前的研究中，来自澳大利亚一所大型大学的402名本科一年级心理学专业学生指出了32个问题在过去六个月中对其心理健康产生负面影响的程度。学生们认为缺钱、时间管理、课程作业评估项目、睡眠不足和课程成绩对他们的心理健康影响最大。缺钱和时间管理在（a）过去一周和（b）过去一个月中，介导了主观社会地位与心理健康之间的正相关关系。课程作业评估项目和课程成绩介导了主观社会地位与对大学经历满意度之间的正相关关系。研究得出结论，干预措施应侧重于这些影响相对较大的问题，以解决学生心理健康和大学满意度方面的社会阶层差异。
