Does education matter? Income inequality and mental health among young adult men

The impacts of income and education on mental health have been understudied among young adult men. This study aims to explore the association between income and depression among young adult men, to examine how educational attainment influences depression, and to investigate how educational attainment moderates the relationship between income and depression among young adult men. We used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 79 for Children and Young Adults (NLSY79 CY). A total of 1084 young adult men were selected for the final sample. The PROCESS macro 3.4 for Statistical Product and Service Solutions was used for analysis. Both income and educational attainment were negatively related to depression among young adult men. We found a significant interaction effect, indicating that educational attainment moderated the relationship between income and depression among young adult men. The effect of educational attainment on depression was greater for young adult men who earned a lower income compared to those who earned a higher income. Job training programs and other employment assistance should be provided to young adult men to help them to gain employment and job security, as well as to indirectly reduce their levels of depression. Increased access to higher education may also help men attain higher-paying jobs, which may buffer against depression. We suggest that men who have not received higher education receive access to job training programs and programs for job searching and career development to bolster their earnings potential, which thus may reduce depression.

Education; Income; Depression; Young adult men

[1] Mojtabai R, Olfson M, Han B. National trends in the prevalence and treatment of depression in adolescents and young adults. Pediatrics. 2016; 138: e20161878.

[2] National Institute of Mental Health. Major depression. 2022. Available at: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/major-depression (Accessed: 20 February 2023).

[3] Villarroel MA, Terlizzi EP. Symptoms of depression among adults: United States, 2019. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Atlanta, GA, USA. 2020.

[4] American Psychological Association. Upfront: by the numbers: men and depression. Monitor on Psychology. 2015; 46: 13.

[5] Brody DJ, Pratt LA, Hughes JP. Prevalence of depression among adults aged 20 and over: United States, 2013–2016. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Atlanta, GA, USA. 2018.

[6] Kessler RC, Petukhova M, Sampson NA, Zaslavsky AM, Wittchen H. Twelve-month and lifetime prevalence and lifetime morbid risk of anxiety and mood disorders in the United States. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research. 2012; 21: 169–184.

[7] Hakulinen C, Elovainio M, Pulkki-Råback L, Böckerman P, Viinikainen J, Pehkonen J, et al. Depressive symptoms and long-term income: the young Finns study. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2016; 204: 120–123.

[8] Kim HK, Capaldi DM, Stoolmiller M. Depressive symptoms across adolescence and young adulthood in men: predictions from parental and contextual risk factors. Development and Psychopathology. 2003; 15: 469–495.

[9] McCarty CA, Kosterman R, Mason WA, McCauley E, Hawkins JD, Herrenkohl TI, et al. Longitudinal associations among depression, obesity and alcohol use disorders in young adulthood. General Hospital Psychiatry. 2009; 31: 442–450.

[10] Tekbaş OF, Ceylan S, Hamzaoğlu O, Hasde M. An investigation of the prevalence of depressive symptoms in newly recruited young adult men in Turkey. Psychiatry Research. 2003; 119: 155–162.

[11] Watkins DC, Green BL, Rivers BM, Rowell KL. Depression and black men: implications for future research. The Journal of Men’s Health & Gender. 2006; 3: 227–235.

[12] Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. 2021 poverty guidelines. 2021. Available at: https://aspe.hhs.gov/ 2021-poverty-guidelines (Accessed: 20 February 2023).

[13] Chlapecka A, Kagstrom A, Cermakova P. Educational attainment inequalities in depressive symptoms in more than 100 000 individuals in Europe. European Psychiatry. 2022; 65: S269.

[14] Cohen AK, Nussbaum J, Ritterman Weintraub ML, Nichols CR, Yen IH. Association of adult depression with educational attainment, aspirations, and expectations. Preventing Chronic Disease. 2020; 17: E94.

[15] Fujiwara T, Kawachi I. A prospective study of individual-level social capital and major depression in the United States. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. 2008; 62: 627–633.

[16] McFarland MJ, Wagner BG. Does a college education reduce depressive symptoms in American young adults? Social Science & Medicine. 2015; 146: 75–84.

[17] Ross CE, Mirowsky J. Sex differences in the effect of education on depression: resource multiplication or resource substitution? Social Science & Medicine. 2006; 63: 1400–1413.

[18] Shen W. A tangled web: the reciprocal relationship between depression and educational outcomes in China. Social Science Research. 2020; 85: 102353.

[19] Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Education at a Glance 2019. OECD Publishing: Paris. 2019.

[20] Tamborini CR, Kim C, Sakamoto A. Education and lifetime earnings in the United States. Demography. 2015; 52: 1383–1407.

[21] Bauldry S. Variation in the protective effect of higher education against depression. Society and Mental Health. 2015; 5: 145–161.

[22] Zimmerman FJ, Katon W. Socioeconomic status, depression disparities, and financial strain: what lies behind the income-depression relationship?Health Economics. 2005; 14: 1197–1215.

[23] U.S. Bureau of labor statistics. economic news release: employment and unemployment among youth summary. 2022. Available at: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/youth.nr0.htm (Accessed: 20 Febru-ary 2023).

[24] Radloff LS. The CES-D scale: a self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement. 1977; 1: 385–401.

[25] Preacher KJ, Hayes AF. SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers. 2004; 36: 717–731.

[26] Preacher KJ, Hayes AF. Asymptotic and resampling techniques for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavioral Research Methods. 2008; 40: 879–891.

[27] Frank MW. Inequality and growth in the United States: evidence from a new state-level panel of income inequality measures. Economic Inquiry. 2009; 47: 55–68.

[28] Horowitz JM, Igielnik R, Kochhar R. 1. Trends in income and wealth inequality. Pew Research Center. 2020. Available at: https: //www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-in-income-and-wealth-inequality/ (Accessed: 20 February 2023).

[29] Bavinton BR, Chan C, Hammoud MA, Maher L, Haire B, Degenhardt L, et al. Increase in depression and anxiety among Australian gay and bisexual men during COVID-19 restrictions: findings from a prospective online cohort study. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 2022; 51: 355–364.

[30] Ettman CK, Cohen GH, Abdalla SM, Sampson L, Trinquart L, Castrucci BC, et al. Persistent depressive symptoms during COVID-19: a national, population-representative, longitudinal study of U.S. adults. The Lancet Regional Health-Americas. 2021; 5: 1000091.