Title: Crushed by debt?
Headings: Crushed by debt?
Feature
Crushed by debt?
Racking up debt
Competing for support
Finding solutions
Further resources
Need money?
Video
Letters to the Editor

Content: That's on top of the loans his parents took out on his behalf. Uncertainty about how much his debt load could grow affects his personal life, from living with multiple roommates to comparing himself to students who have funding to feeling perpetually guilty about adding to the burden of his already financially strained parents. Financial considerations have also affected his academic career. He spent his first three years as an undergraduate at a community college to save money, for example, and now feels he needs to "race out of grad school as quickly as possible to reduce debt." Avellar isn't unique in feeling stressed by his financial situation. A study by El-Ghoroury and colleagues published in Training and Education in Professional Psychology ® last year found that debt and other financial issues were No. 2 on the list of both student stressors and barriers to self-care, just after academic responsibilities or pressures. But student debt doesn't just hurt students, says El-Ghoroury. It also hurts psychology as a whole, he says. "Psychology is enriched by having students from all types of backgrounds," says El-Ghoroury. "