Stress and Mental Health: Social-Emotional Protective Factors by Gender and First-Generation College Student Status

The goal of this study was to test whether the association between college students' stress and mental health differed depending on social support and emotion expression beliefs. Additionally, this study examined whether these protective factors differed by gender and first-generation student status. Participants included emerging adult college students (N = 792) from a midsize public university in the Southwestern U.S. Students completed an online survey measuring their stress, mental health, emotion expression beliefs, and social support. Results demonstrated that social support was a protective factor for all and did not differ by gender or first-generation student status, whereas emotion expression beliefs related to lower levels of depression for women and lessened the negative effects of stress on mental health for continuing-generation students.