Methods

Participants

65 graduate students from Ball State University (59% female) participated in this study. Approximately 41% were master's students, 31% Ph.D students, and 4% were pursuing another form of graduate degree. The average age was 27.65 years old (SD = 6.56). The participants were predominantly White (61%), Asian or Asian-American (4%), Hispanic or Latinx (3%), Biracial (3%), Black or African American (2%) and other ethnicity (3%). Approximately 64% had a graduate assistantship and the most common income was between $5,000 - $13,000.

Procedure

Participants were recruited via emails dispersed by graduate students and faculty at Ball State. Participants were asked to answer questions about their healthcare needs, current mental health, and several demographic questions.

Measures

Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9; Kroenke et al., 2001): The PHQ-9 is a 9-item measure of depressive symptoms and severity ("over the last two weeks how often have you been bothered by feeling down, depressed, or hopeless") rated on a 4-point Likert scale with higher scores indicating greater depression (α = .87).

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7; Spitzer et al., 2006): The GAD-7 is a 7-item measure of anxiety symptoms and severity ("over the last two weeks how often have you been bothered by having trouble relaxing") rated on a 4-point Likert scale with higher scores indicating greater anxiety (α = .89).

Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen et al., 1983): The PSS is a 14-item measure of recent stress (" In the last month, how often have you felt difficulties were piling up
so high that you could not overcome them") rated on a 5-point Likert scale with higher scores indicating greater stress (α = .82).

Health Insurance: Participants were asked whether they did or did not have health insurance.

Analysis:

Descriptive statistics and correlations between the variables were calculated. The data was tested for normality and given the high correlations between depression, stress, and anxiety multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to examine the variables together and determine whether their were significant differences between variables based on health insurance status.