Session: Examining the Effects of Student Loans in Online Communities on Common Mental Health Disorders (Society for Social Work and Research 28th Annual Conference - Recentering & Democratizing Knowledge: The Next 30 Years of Social Work Science)

Mental health disorders are among the most common health conditions in the US affecting approximately 20% of the population each year. Studies have shown that common mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, and stress, can impact a person's ability to manage their finances effectively, poor financial decision-making, overspending, or neglecting loan payments, which can exacerbate both mental health issues and financial problems. Same is also true for financial strain (e.g. economic hardships, low-income, over-indebtedness, use of alternative financial service providers) that may manifest as anxiety, depression, or other mental health challenges, as individuals may struggle with meeting basic needs, increased financial worries, and limited opportunities to focus on their wellbeing, which can take a toll on their mental health.

The goal of this symposium is to discuss with the social work research community the bidirectional relationships between mental health and financial wellbeing. The symposium will feature presentations of five studies which utilized a diversity of qualitative methods to examine the discussions in online communities on mental health regarding their student loan debts. The first presentation will focus on stressors that compound the burden of student loan debt among individuals who reported their experiences of depression in an online community. The second presentation will highlight how hope influences views of future success and outlooks on student loan debt to individual respondents who identify as having a bipolar diagnosis on an online community platform. The third presentation will focus on exploring the perspectives of users with, or family members that have, symptoms of psychopathology and student loan debt as expressed in an online community forum. The next presentation will be on describing the coexisting effects of anxiety and student loan debts among users of an online mental health community. The final presentation will focus on exploring the meaning of seeking support for suicidal ideation for individuals that engage with a semi-anonymous online peer support group.

After the presentations, two discussants will share their perspectives on the results of these studies from two unique perspectives. The first discussant will focus on social causation model which emphasizes that financial vulnerabilities increase the risks of mental illnesses. The second discussant will share their experiences on the social drift model which hypothesizes that mental health impacts people's financial attitudes and behaviors. The discussion will primarily focus on three areas: (a) what are some sources of data that can be used to examine the bidirectional nature of relationship between mental health and financial services, (b) what are some challenges that researchers can anticipate while studying this bi-directional relationship, (c) how symbiotic relationships between researchers from two differing schools of thought could generate potentially new knowledge for social workers, other practitioners, and policymakers. Following this, participants will have an opportunity for questions and answers, networking and collaborating potential, and discussing ideas for research projects in the future.