# Anti-mattering mediates the relationship between social-responsibility misalignments and mental health problems in young people

## TL;DR

This study shows that when university students feel their personal values don't align with their university's values, it can worsen their mental health through a sense of invisibility.

## Contribution

The study introduces anti-mattering as a mediator linking social-responsibility misalignments and mental health in young people.

## Key findings

- Students rated personal social-responsibility values higher than those ascribed to their university.
- Misalignments in social-responsibility values were linked to higher depression-anxiety-stress scores.
- Anti-mattering, particularly perceived invisibility, mediated the relationship between misalignments and mental health.

## Abstract

Mental health problems among university students are increasing in prevalence, and it is vital to understand why. The detrimental effects of misalignments between corporate social-responsibility values and those of employees have been widely evidenced. We investigated how misalignments between the personal importance of social-responsibility values held by students versus those of their university affected their mental health. It was predicted that anti-mattering would mediate relationships between misalignments in social-responsibility values and mental health problems.

Student participants (N=171) completed an online survey assessing the personal importance of nine social-responsibility domains together with the perceived importance of these domains to the student’s university. Participants also completed a measure of anti-mattering which assesses perceptions of being insignificant and invisible, and a composite measure of depression-anxiety-stress. Direct and indirect pathways were assessed with linear regression models.

There were four key findings. First, across the nine social-responsibility domains, personal importance ratings were significantly higher than those ascribed to the university. Second, misalignments in social-responsibility importance ratings were significantly associated with depression-anxiety-stress scores. Third, the relationship between the discrepancy in social-responsibility importance ratings and depression-anxiety-stress was mediated by anti-mattering. Fourth, the key characteristic of anti-mattering in this mediated pathway was perceived invisibility.

There is potential for a positive effect on mental health to be gained if institutions, such as universities, authentically co-develop, instantiate, and evaluate social-responsibility values with stakeholders in ways that genuinely combat invisibility, and instead, reflect that the views and feelings of stakeholders do matter.