Access to Health Resources, Academic Performance, and Depressive Symptomatology Among African American College Women

Background/Purpose: Emerging adults (18-29 years of age) are most at-risk of developing a mental illness. Research indicates that the early onset of a mental illness is more likely to occur during this unique developmental stage because of potential environmental stressors (e.g., transitioning to college). Despite the early onset of a mental illness occurring across racial/ ethnic groups, several disparities affecting mental health access impacts specific minority groups. To date, racial/ethnic minorities have less access to mental health services and these disparities exist among African American college students. There is also a dearth of research literature exploring access to health resources among African American emerging adults and it is also less clear about the impact of access on emerging females’ psychosocial adjustment. This is especially imperative as women are twice as likely as men to be affected by depression. Thus, the current study utilizes an intersectionality framework to understand how access to health-related resources influences academic performance and psychosocial adjustment.

Methods:The National College Health Assessment Survey (NCHA-II) from fall 2012 was utilized. A purposeful sample of African American females (n=1233, mean age=23 years of age) was selected. A hierarchical regression analyses examined: 1) the influence of academic performance impediments on depressive symptomatology, 2) the impact of receiving and/or being interested in receiving health-related resources on depressive symptomatology, and 3) the extent to which receiving and/or being interested in receiving health-related resources reduced the negative impact of academic performance impediments on depressive symptomatology.

Measures The demographic and control variables were participants’ general health status, age, relationship status, and sexual orientation. Outcome variables included experiencing depressive symptomatology (e.g., sadness, hopeless, anxiety) in the last 12 months, 30 days, or two weeks. The independent variables were impediments to academic performance, interest in receiving health-related resources from the college/university, and actual receipt of such information. 

Results: The findings indicated that impediments to academic performance (β =.05, p=.04) were associated with higher depressive symptomatology. Additionally, receiving information on health-related resources (β=-.06, p=.012) was associated with lower depressive symptomatology. Interestingly enough, being interested in receiving health-related resources (β=.09, p=.001) from the college/university was associated with higher depressive symptomatology. More specifically, African American females who reported higher amounts of impediments to their academic performance, regardless of low to high levels of interest, reported higher depressive symptomatology (β=-.09, p=.001). Lastly, reporting being bisexual or a lesbian (β=.05, p=.042) reported higher depressive symptomatology and impediments to academic performance in comparison to their heterosexual counterparts.

Conclusions: The findings underscore the importance of receiving health-related resources on college/university campuses. Being interested, yet not receiving health-related information from the college/university puts African American female emerging adults at risk of developing depression. The findings also have implications for sexual minority emerging adults and their experiences on college campuses.