The interplay of friendship stress, social support, and optimism on psychological distress in college students

Young adulthood, experienced by many during college, is a prime time for students to foster personal growth and development. Throughout this time, friendships serve as important relationships that help them shape their identities and develop community. Thus, the stress resulting from these friendships can be extremely distressing, especially as they build a life away from home. This study thus examined the role of friendship stress and its impact on psychological distress. To study what can help students manage the impact of this stressor on mental health, we also examined social support and optimism as moderators. Hierarchical regression analyses were thus conducted to understand the relationship between friendship stress, social support, optimism and psychological distress in a sample of 547 college students. Findings showed that friendship stress and psychological distress were significantly and negatively related and that optimism, but not social support, was a significant moderator of this association although in ways that were not hypothesized. These suggest the negative impact that friendship stress can have on the mental health of college students and the need to further study coping mechanisms. Future studies on this to better understand friendships among college student mental health is recommended. Implications and limitations are discussed.