By Abby Taylor
Rising prices aren’t just causing anxiety for American families. Many college students also show concern about trying to be financially independent with inflation at a 40-year high.
“That gets me very anxious, especially with taking out student loans,” said Rodrigo Campos, a Washington D.C. college student. “It’s always nagging at me. It’s always a thought in my head, like, ‘Hey, you gotta save up money for this because you don’t know what might happen in the future’.”
Los Angeles college student Jenna Valentine said, “I definitely have more anxiety about it. It makes me feel hopeless or out of control of my own life, in a way. It kind of feels like I’m working for capitalism.”
According to WebMD, doctors have noticed increased mental strain among patients in recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic is the leading cause of the mental strain.
The feelings have had negative effects on some college students’ mental health. “I’ve started using more substances,” Campos said. “I guess it’s more of an escape, to not think about it. But then it always comes back and gets you in the face like ‘ahh, I’m here again’.
Worries about being able to afford basic necessities are also common among college students. Increased gas and food prices have affected their everyday lives.
“I try to avoid driving now,” Valentine said. “But it’s stressful because it’s hard to get around it because there’s not really great public transportation in either city that I live in,”
Massachusetts resident Jenn Cinicola has had to make changes to her daily life. She said, “I’m now almost exclusively using public transport. Groceries are now something I’m trying to do every other week… because the big hitters like food and gas are the ones that I’m paying most attention to.”
Also, college students face added pressures, such as finding a job after graduation. According to Valentine, higher prices have made this decision harder. Students worry about whether they will earn enough money to afford basic needs.
“I know what I’m passionate about and what I want to be doing,” Valentine said. “But then I think about how much that [I] might make…financially and it makes me want to back out of it and switch to a whole different career.”
Cinicola said some students also face the pressure of being a caretaker for others, which adds to their finacial stresses since they need more resources. “Those who have to take care of others, not just themselves…I think people who actually are the main caregiver in a community or a family, I can’t even imagine the stress that many people are under, especially if they’re working minimum-wage jobs,” said Cinicola.
According to Valentine, students’ low incomes are not affected by the current inflation. College students now need to earn more money at their jobs to compete with increasing prices, but Valentine said that is not what’s happening. “Considering the inflation rates of where I’ve been working and located, I probably should be getting paid more,” she said.