Rhodes Alec P, Dwyer Rachel E, Houle Jason N
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
J Health Soc Behav. 2025 Mar;66(1):38-56. doi: 10.1177/00221465241268477. Epub 2024 Sep 3.
The debt collection industry in the United States has grown in tandem with rising indebtedness. Prior research on debt and mental health mainly treats debt as a resource and liability rather than a power relationship between creditors and debtors. We study the mental health consequences of debt collection pressure using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-1997 Cohort (N = 7,236). Drawing on stress theory and health power resources theory, we posit collection pressure as a relational stressor that undermines well-being through negative interactions with debt collectors, financial strain, role strain, and stigma. We find that more than one out of every three young adults in this cohort faced debt collection pressure by around age 40, with higher rates among low-income and Black young adults. Individual fixed-effects and lagged dependent variable regression models indicate that debt collection pressure is associated with increased psychological distress, with more severe consequences among low-income young adults.
美国的债务追讨行业随着债务的增加而发展。先前关于债务与心理健康的研究主要将债务视为一种资源和负债，而非债权人和债务人之间的权力关系。我们利用1997年全国青年纵向调查（样本量N = 7236）的数据，研究债务追讨压力对心理健康的影响。基于压力理论和健康权力资源理论，我们将追讨压力视为一种关系性压力源，它通过与债务追讨人之间的负面互动、经济压力、角色压力和污名化来损害幸福感。我们发现，该队列中每三名以上的年轻人在40岁左右时面临债务追讨压力，低收入和黑人年轻人的比例更高。个体固定效应和滞后因变量回归模型表明，债务追讨压力与心理困扰增加有关，对低收入年轻人的影响更为严重。
