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Description
The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of parental financial support and emotional support on college social work students' well-being. Exploring how different levels of parental financial and emotional support effect a student's depression, stress, negative emotion, and positive emotion, specifically between high and low income level students. This was conducted through a exploratory, non-experimental study. An anonymous self-reported questionnaire was used to conduct non-random, single time observation from a convenience sample of undergraduate and graduate Social Work Students from San Diego State University. One hundred and forty-six students participated in the present study. Due to various participants having missing data, especially in the family income measurement, only ninety-seven participant's data were analyzed. The majority of the results in this study did not support the hypotheses. However, this study's results did indicate that the more financial support and parental social support students received from their parents, the more positive emotion they experienced. It was also found the more parent social support a student with lower income desired, the higher the student's level of stress and depression. Also, higher levels of desire for parental social support was less influential on their depression and stress level for students of higher family income than among lower family income level students. Contrary to the researcher's expectation, it was found that the larger the gap between parent social support experience and parent social support desired was associated with higher positive emotion among students. In conclusion, since the study found a relationship between parental financial support and parental social support experience and positive emotion, it may be important to conduct further research in this area in order to establish more effective outreach programs for students and their families. This is especially important due to the stressful economic situation and the current increase in college tuition, as well as the negative impact of stress and depression on a student's academic achievement and retention within college programs. These outreach programs within universities could help educate and support families and students in different ways to help students increase their well-being and be successful during college.
