Examining a dyadic model of mental health management for college students

Scholars and public health officials alike note that the increase in mental health challenges in emerging adulthood is concerning and needs to be addressed through adequate programming. Mental health management interventions, such as mental health literacy (MHL) and mental health first-aid programs, seek to address this public health issue. However, the effects of these interventions are often inconsistent and lack sustained outcomes. Scholars speculate these effects are not always consistent due to a lack of (a) predictive, unified theory informing the interventions and (b) attention to the influence of close social network members on mental health management. The latter limitation may be especially pertinent to the college student or emerging adult age group. Research suggests that college students often turn to their parents, who may either help or hinder their management behaviors. This dissertation drew on prominent interpersonal communication theorizing to propose and assess a dyadic model of mental health management. The proposed model accounts for both the intrapersonal processes often attended to in mental health management research and the interpersonal interactions between college students and their parents. Guided by the MHL framework, models that inform disclosure practices, and the social support quandary hypothesis, this study explored how MHL and communication efficacy are related to disclosure and supportive communication behaviors within the college student–parent dyad. In doing so, the study assessed a model that accounted for the associations among individuals’ own variables (which are referred to here as intrapersonal effects; e.g., student disclosure, parent support quality), while also examining how parent and student communication processes influence each other (referred to in the current dissertation as interpersonal effects). More specifically, this study examined how the parent’s and child’s own MHL, communication efficacy, and communication behaviors are interrelated. Importantly, it explored how parents may influence their child’s behavior and vice versa. To test the proposed model, I recruited 207 college student–parent dyads to participate in a study that assessed each dyad member’s MHL, communication efficacy (i.e., disclosure efficacy for students, supportive communication efficacy for parents), and promoted communication behaviors for mental health management (i.e., student openness, parent support quality). Informed by the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model framework and structural equation modeling, results revealed significant intra- and interpersonal communication associations. On the student side, results showed that disclosure efficacy had a strong association with openness about mental health challenges, while the association between student MHL and openness was only marginally significant. On the parent side, MHL and supportive communication efficacy were both positively and significantly associated with support quality. Additionally, some interpersonal effects emerged. Parent MHL was positively associated with student disclosure efficacy, and student disclosure efficacy was associated with parent support quality. The results suggest that parents influence their children’s disclosure decisions. By incorporating communication theory into the study of mental health management and emphasizing the dyadic interdependence of disclosure and support processes, the findings of this dissertation offer several theoretical and empirical contributions that may inform mental health management programming. The results provide initial support for the idea that it may be beneficial to utilize communication theory in the design of mental health interventions. Additionally, the interpersonal associations found in this study suggest that dyadic assessments of mental health management may yield insights that individual-level analyses would likely overlook.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communication

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Caban, Sarah Marie

Contributors dc:contributor

• Caughlin, John P.
• Caughlin, John P
• Guntzviller, Lisa
• Thompson, Charee M
• Quick, Brian

• Mental Health
• Health Management Behaviors
• Interpersonal Communication
• Young Adults
• Child-parent
• Family

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Sarah Caban

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129860

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F129860