Psychology Commons^™

Increased Mood Disorder Symptoms, Perceived Stress, And Alcohol Use Among College Students During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Nora E. Charles, Stephanie J. Strong, Lauren C. Burns, Margaret R. Bullerjahn, Katherine M. Serafine

Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruption during the spring of 2020. Many college students were told to leave campus at spring break and to complete the semester remotely. This study evaluates effects of this disruption on student well-being. Measures of psychological symptoms, perceived stress, and alcohol use during the pandemic were completed by 148 students in spring 2020 and 352 students in fall 2020 at a university in the southeastern U.S. Results from both cohorts were compared to 240 students who completed the same measures in the fall 2019 semester. Participants in spring 2020 reported more mood disorder symptoms, perceived …

A Brighter Future: The Effect Of Social Class On Responses To Future Debt, Harrison J. Schmitt, Lucas A. Keefer, Daniel Sullivan, Sheridan Stewart, Isaac F. Young

Faculty Publications

© 2020, PsychOpen. All rights reserved. The present study serves as an exploratory investigation of the role of social class in responses to the threat of future debt. Previous work has shown that individuals of high and low subjective social class differ in the ways that they respond to a broad range of threats and uncertainties about the future. Across three studies, we found that lower social class individuals expect more future debt and suffer greater attendant stress than higher class individuals (Study 1). We found that experimental manipulations of debt salience increased stress for lower class and not for …

Preadolescent Sensation Seeking And Early Adolescent Stress Relate To At-Risk Adolescents' Substance Use By Age 15, Nora E. Charles, Charles W. Mathias, Ashley Acheson, Donald M. Dougherty

Faculty Publications

Background and aims

Substance use during adolescence can lead to the development of substance use disorders and other psychosocial problems. These negative outcomes are especially likely for individuals who use substances at earlier ages and those who engage in heavier use during adolescence, behaviors which are both more common among youth at higher risk for developing a substance use disorder, such as those with a family history of substance use disorders (FH +). Factors such as increased sensation seeking and greater exposure to stressors among FH + youth may influence these associations. Therefore, the aim of this study was to …