Recent study links credit card debt to problematic behavior in college students

Toga parties, streaking through the quad, and harassing the dean all define a college student's "animal house" life. Drugs, sex and rock and roll are staple marks in the college experience due to the freedom of being away from home for the first time. But, there is another first that many students tend to sweep under the rug: credit. Sure, there's nothing wrong with cutting loose and having a little fun, but more and more research is showing that these kinds of behaviors are the result of pacifying the anxiety of credit debt.

Smoking and drinking go together like peanut butter and jelly to the party animal, but engaging in these activities, especially if it's in excess, can create a behavioral pattern that lends itself to accumulating credit debt. Simply drinking and smoking isn't an end all be all to racking up credit debt. Rather, it's a process of creating a mental state that is unable to manage an academic, social, and financial life all at the same time. According to a recent study published in The Internet Journal of Mental Health, "having credit card debt was positively associated with smoking in the past 30 days, [and] drinking in the past 30 days." Basically, all this is saying is that if you're drunk you are much more likely to whip out that Visa, MasterCard, etc. and use it to buy another bottle of liquid courage and a pack of smokes.

This is not new information. Everyone knows that alcohol compromises your ability to rationalize, but what this behavior turns into is a pattern that can leave the modern college student with an extraordinary amount of debt. At first, the drinking and smoking starts out as a social experiment, but for many college students today, the experiment turns into a psychological profile that can have serious consequences to health and finances.
Carla J. Berg, the lead researcher behind the study, says, "Engaging in risky health behaviors and incurring credit card debt are associated with similar psychological constructs." Students use their credit to buy booze and cigarettes, but then turn to alcohol and tobacco to quell the anxiety of the debt they are dealing with.

For some students this is a lesson they are going to have to learn the hard way.

"Research has found that knowledge and education impact these health behaviors as well as credit card debt," said Berg. "Thus, providing education about these factors is important in preventing high-risk behavior." 

The purpose of college is to provide an education to young men and women in a particular field of their choosing, but what college doesn't teach in the classroom is functional social and financial behavior. This kind of education has to be administered by parents and financial professionals.

College can be a confusing and sometimes scary time for young adults, so it's important to educate your potential college graduate about the environment they are entering. There is a lot of pressure to do well academically and fit in socially, which can lend itself to anxiety and behavioral patterns that are self-destructive. But, with proper education and the right information, these patterns can be broken, sometimes before they are formed.

-A.J. Register