Financial Stress Among College Students: New Data About Student Loan Debt, Lack of Emergency Savings, Social and Personal Resources (2024)

We provide updated results about the link between student loan debt and emergency savings with financial stress, and after conditioning for differences in social and personal resources. We use the stress process model framework and data from the 2020 Study on Collegiate Financial Wellness (N = 25,310) to estimate ordered probit regression models. The 2020 data confirm that students report higher levels of stress if they hold more loan debt and have lower emergency savings. Students with higher levels of financial socialization and financial self-efficacy experience less financial stress and experience more stress when they report both positive and negative financial management behaviors. Among student-borrowers, the role of social and personal resources is weakened. The data confirm ongoing financial stress among college students and points to the important role of financial socialization through parents and financial skill in students' ability to cope with financial stress.