The interplay of friendship stress, social support, and optimism on psychological distress in college students

ABSTRACT

Young adulthood, experienced by many during college, is a prime time for students to foster personal growth and development. Throughout this time, friendships serve as important relationships that help them shape their identities and develop community. Thus, the stress resulting from these friendships can be extremely distressing, especially as they build a life away from home. This study thus examined the role of friendship stress and its impact on psychological distress. To study what can help students manage the impact of this stressor on mental health, we also examined social support and optimism as moderators. Hierarchical regression analyses were thus conducted to understand the relationship between friendship stress, social support, optimism and psychological distress in a sample of 547 college students. Findings showed that friendship stress and psychological distress were significantly and negatively related and that optimism, but not social support, was a significant moderator of this association although in ways that were not hypothesized. These suggest the negative impact that friendship stress can have on the mental health of college students and the need to further study coping mechanisms. Future studies on this to better understand friendships among college student mental health is recommended. Implications and limitations are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Friendship stress
• coping
• college students
• social support
• optimism

Acknowledgments

The researchers would like to thank Isabel Gonzalez for her help on this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Minji Yang

Minji Yang (she/her/hers) is a Counselor Faculty and Intern Training Coordinator at San Jose State University’s Counseling and Psychological Services. Her clinical and research interests include studying culture-specific stressors (e.g., acculturative stress, intergenerational cultural conflict, bicultural identity development, racism-related stress) and coping strategies among international students, Asian/Asian Americans, and immigrant families and how these impact their mental health. She is also interested in investigating culturally sensitive treatment for the aforementioned populations.

Andres Perez-Rojas

Andrés E. Pérez-Rojas (he/him/his/El) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology at Indiana University Bloomington. His research interests include psychotherapy process and outcome, with particular emphases on the therapeutic relationship, cultural processes, and college student mental health. He is also interested in various aspects of culture and multiculturalism, particularly on topics related to language/bilingualism, acculturation, Latino/a mental health, and the role of culture in psychotherapy.

Matthew J. Miller

Matthew J. Miller (he/him/his) is Professor and Co-Graduate Program Director of the counseling programs at Loyola University Chicago. His research program (a) examines ways in which racism and cultural experiences relate to mental health in AAPI populations and in other diverse communities, (b) evaluates the measurement of racial and cultural constructs, and (c) explores the ways in which storytelling can help individuals and communities heal from racial trauma and oppression.