(PS6-C54) Student Loan Status Moderates the Association Between Subjective Socioeconomic Status and the Risk of Alcohol Use Disorder and Anxious Symptoms

More than 45 million borrowers owe more than $1.7 trillion in student debt in the United States. Further, the student loan crisis is unfolding in the context of widespread and increasing income inequality and pessimism about the extent to which young people will have a secure, stable economic future. Despite receiving substantial media and government attention, the topics of student loan debt, beliefs about one’s future socioeconomic status and their impact on young people’s mental health have received scant research attention. The current study aimed to begin to bridge this gap by assessing recent college graduates’ student loan status (i.e., reporting having or not having student loan debt) and their subjective socioeconomic status, and evaluating them in relation to their self-reported risk of alcohol use disorder (AUD) and symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress. These data are part of a larger, longitudinal online study evaluating identity factors and alcohol misuse in a sample of college seniors who reported alcohol misuse prior to their graduation. The current data come from the 8^th and final assessment, which occurred approximately 2 years after graduation. Participants (N = 320; mean age = 23.5 years; 59% female, 40% male, 1% gender diverse) graduated from a large public university in the Pacific Northwest. The majority identified as not Hispanic or Latino/a/x (91%); 63% identified as white, 19% as Asian, 13% as bi- or multi-racial. Participants completed questions about loans they received for their studies (including from parents/relatives/friends and from governmental and other sources); items assessing their perceptions of their subjective socioeconomic status position and the degree of (in)stability of that status (adapted from Adler & Stewart, 2007); and measures of risk of AUD (Barbor et al., 2001) and of depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). Study hypotheses and data analytic plan were registered at the Open Science Framework prior to conducting analyses. Results indicated that both higher subjective socioeconomic status position and greater perceptions of instability of that status position were associated with higher risk of AUD. Student loan status moderated those effects such that there was a stronger positive relationship observed among participants who reported having student loans (vs. those who reported not having loans). Greater perceptions of instability of one’s socioeconomic status position were also associated with more symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Moderation findings were limited to anxious symptoms, with a stronger positive association observed among participants who reported having college student loans (vs. those who reported not having loans). Though this study is a cross-sectional, secondary data analysis, and comes from an educationally privileged group (i.e., college graduates), it provides preliminary evidence of links in young adult student loan debt, perceptions of their socioeconomic status, and their mental health and suggests the importance of increased attention to these topics.