Frontiers in Psychology：意大利大学生照护者的心理健康、学业表现与成瘾行为

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.

Sec. Health Psychology

Abstract

Objectives: Student mental health is an emerging global public health priority in higher education. Preliminary evidence indicates that caregiving is a mental health risk factor in university students. This study investigates demographic, educational, and caregiving variables as potential risk factors for university student carer mental health (anxiety, depression), addictive behaviors, and academic performance problems. Methods: 2,533 university students in Italy completed an online cross-sectional survey assessing depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-9), anxiety symptoms (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7), ten addictive behaviors (Screener for Substance and Behavioural Addictions), and self-assessed academic performance. Predictors included demographics variables (sex, age, nationality), educational variables (degree programme, residential status, enrollment status), caregiving context variables (carer-care recipient relationship, care recipient’s type of health condition) and caregiving responsibilities. Results: Student carers living with a family member with a serious health condition comprised 30.1% of the sample (n=762). Compared with non-carers, carers reported higher depressive symptoms (B=1.83, 95% CI [1.33,2.33]; β=.14), higher anxiety symptoms (B=1.32, 95% CI [.87,1.77]; β=.11), and lower academic performance (B=−.21, 95% CI[−.39,−.02]; β=−.05). Carer status was also associated with higher odds of problematic involvement in cannabis (OR=1.69, 95% CI [1.25,2.28]), food consumption (OR=1.62, 95% CI [1.34, 1.95]), shopping (OR=1.39, 95% CI [1.09, 1.78]), videogaming (OR=1.29, 95% CI [1.06,1.57]), and social-network use (OR=1.26, 95% CI [1.06,1.50]). Within the student-carer subgroup, after adjusting for all demographic, educational, caregiving-context, and caregiving-responsibility variables, caring for a family member with a mental health condition or intellectual disability was associated with higher depressive symptoms (B=1.66, 95% CI [.54,2.79]). Greater caregiving responsibilities were associated with higher depressive symptoms (B=1.12, 95% CI [.62,1.62]), higher anxiety symptoms (B=1.01, 95% CI [.57,1.44]), and higher odds of problematic food consumption (OR = 1.32, 95% CI [1.10,1.59]), and physical exercise (OR=1.31, 95% CI [1.08,1.59]). Conclusion: Findings replicate prior evidence showing student carers are at higher risk than non-carer peers for mental health problems. Results extend prior research showing student carers are also at higher risk for addictive behaviors and poorer self-assessed academic performance. Findings highlight the incremental and simultaneous contributions of demographic, educational, and caregiving variables as risk factors for student carer mental health and addictive behaviors.

Keywords

academic performance, Addictive behaviours, caregiving, Mental Health, student carers, university students

Received

18 August 2026

Accepted

28 September 2026

Copyright

© 2026 Landi, Pakenham, Ambrosini, Bao, Tossani and Grandi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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