Over-indebtedness, mastery and mental health: a cross-sectional study among over-indebted adults in Switzerland

The aim is to investigate whether and why over-indebted individuals in German-speaking Switzerland have poorer mental health than the general population.

A cross-sectional study among over-indebted people in the canton of Zurich was conducted in 2019. The study population (n = 219) was compared to the cantonal subsample of the general adult population selected from the nationally representative sample of the Swiss Health Survey 2017 (n = 1,997). Bivariate and multivariate statistical analyses were used to examine associations between over-indebtedness, mastery and health outcomes like mental stress and depression.

Over-indebted people have poorer mental health and weaker mastery than the general population. Low mastery is the strongest predictor of poor mental health (beta coefficient = 0.58/-0.62 for mental stress/depression respectively) among the over-indebted, followed by the perception of one's health being affected by over-indebtedness (beta coefficient = -0.19/0.15). The amount of debt, anticipated time until repayment of debt and duration of indebtedness had no predictive effects.

Surprisingly, traditional debt parameters cannot explain the poor mental health of the over-indebted, in contrast to a strong sense of mastery, which was identified as a highly protective factor.