The debt collection industry in the United States has grown in tandem with rising indebtedness. Prior research on debt and mental health mainly treats debt as a resource and liability rather than a power relationship between creditors and debtors. We study the mental health consequences of debt collection pressure using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-1997 Cohort (N = 7,236). Drawing on stress theory and health power resources theory, we posit collection pressure as a relational stressor that undermines well-being through negative interactions with debt collectors, financial strain, role strain, and stigma. We find that one of every four young adults in this cohort faced debt collection pressure by around age 40, with higher rates among low-income and Black young adults. Individual fixed-effects and lagged dependent variable regression models indicate that debt collection pressure is associated with increased psychological distress, with more severe consequences among low-income young adults.

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收债压力和心理健康：来自美国年轻人队列的证据


美国的收债行业与债务增加同步增长。先前关于债务和心理健康的研究主要将债务视为一种资源和负债，而不是债权人和债务人之间的权力关系。我们使用 1997 年全国青年纵向调查队列 （N = 7,236） 的数据研究收债压力对心理健康的影响。借鉴压力理论和健康权力资源理论，我们将催收压力视为一种关系压力源，它通过与收债员的负面互动、财务压力、角色压力和耻辱感来破坏幸福感。我们发现，这个群体中每四个年轻人中就有一个在 40 岁左右面临收债压力，低收入和黑人年轻人的比率更高。个体固定效应和滞后因变量回归模型表明，收债压力与心理困扰增加有关，在低收入年轻人中后果更为严重。