Low socioeconomic status increases effects of negative life events on antenatal anxiety and depression

Problem

Low socioeconomic status and prior negative life events are documented risk factors for antenatal anxiety and depression, preterm birth and birth weight. We aimed to asses whether the adverse effects of prior negative life events increase with lower socioeconomic status and which aspects of socioeconomic status are most relevant.

Air pollution and depressive symptomatology: Exploratory analyses of intervening psychosocial factors

Exploratory modelling revealed associations of individual perceptions, social factors, and physical components of air pollution with depressive symptomatology. Residents of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area who have experienced a recent, undesirable life event and who perceive poor air quality in their neighborhood have greater symptoms of depression. These effects control for socioeconomic status and prior psychological status. In addition we show that perceived air quality is a function of both toxic components of ambient air as well as individual psychosocial experiences.This research was supported by the National Institute for Mental Health (MH 28924-10A1) and the Southern California Edison Health Effects Research Laboratory (J-1909902). We thank Jean Ospital, Len Edwards, and Julian Foon for their assistance. Reprint requests should be sent to Gary Evans, Program in Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92717.     

Family Functioning and Socioeconomic Status in South African Families: A Test of the Social Causation Hypothesis

Optimal family relationships are central to individual well-being. The focus of this paper is on family functioning and how socioeconomic status (SES) explains family functioning. Ecological theory states that a family’s socioeconomic context is determined by macro-systemic factors, thereby influencing individuals’ perceptions of family functioning. Within this context, the social causation hypothesis asserts that social conditions influence family functioning. This paper uses the Family Attachment and Changeability Index as measure of family functioning. SES is viewed as multidimensional and individual-, household-, and subjective SES indices are developed using multiple correspondence analysis. Multivariate regression models suggest that household- and subjective SES are associated with higher levels of perceived flexibility in the family. There is no association between SES and family members’ attachment to each other. In general, the findings support the social causation hypothesis.     

Die gesellschaftliche Verteilung von Traurigkeit. Eine emotionssoziologische Analyse

Sociology is interested in the social incidence of and the factors that account for sadness as a part of a society’s culture of emotions. At the same time, it opens a range of opportunities for the study of social inequality in experiencing emotions. Based on Swiss Household Panel (SHP) data, relationships are assessed between the frequency of sadness, and the parameters of one’s position in the social structure, the social context, as well as critical life events. The paper confirms that sadness is reported differently along social predictors like gender, income, age, nationality and language region.     

‘Emotional authoritarianism’: state,education and the mobile working-class subjects

ABSTRACT

Examining emotions within the studies of mobilities, recent literature has highlighted that migration is an inherently uncertain process shaped by hopes and dreams, as well as feelings of fear and anxiety. More than an individual pursuit for economic advancement or cultural assimilation, we find that migration is also a political project that incessantly creates valuable working-class subjects; a project that often starts in vocational training school, a site generating multiple forms of mobility between learning and workspaces. In the context of China, this article explores the emotional reproduction of working-class subjects through schooling and internship experiences, students’ sense of belonging to the nation-state, their aspirations and fears for the future. Developing the concept of ‘emotional authoritarianism’, it examines the ways in which working-class students were influenced by state-engineered nationalistic sentiments, and how it became a conflictual process of subject-making. Emotional governance is a peculiar political strategy that shapes the emotions of working-class students who are expected to serve the growth of the national economy and transnational capitalism. We discover that mixed emotions or ‘emotions in conflict’ are fundamental to the class reproduction of migrant agents, torn among different bodies and desires in ‘learning to labour’.     

Social Participation in Poland: Links to Emotional Well-Being and Risky Alcohol Consumption

Social participation has been hypothesised to have both positive and negative impact on health outcomes via a variety of pathways, but previous studies have found few significant effects of social participation, and there is a lack of research from post-communist societies, which are known to be low on social capital. Using cross-sectional data from Poland on 2,970 individuals surveyed in 2009, we investigated the individual-level relationships between formal and informal social participation, emotional well-being, and risky alcohol consumption while controlling for demographic variables, socioeconomic status, employment and partnership status, health, religiosity, and generalised trust. Frequent joint activities with friends and neighbours were related to higher positive affect but also to more risky alcohol consumption. Membership in voluntary organisations was associated with more risky alcohol consumption, especially among younger males and for certain types of organisations. In contrast, volunteer work was related to higher positive affect and fewer depressive symptoms in the whole sample and to less risky alcohol consumption among the younger participants. The findings illustrate that some types of social participation, even if they are not typical of a given context (e.g., volunteering in Poland), may be more beneficial than others.     

Mental health among Israeli homosexual adolescents and young adults

This study examines the mental health status of Israeli homosexuals in adolescence and early adulthood in comparison to heterosexual controls. We compared 219 homosexuals (136 gay men and 83 lesbian women) with 219 individually matched heterosexuals on indices of depression and subjective well being. In line with the study hypothesis, the results indicated that the homosexual participants reported more depressive symptoms and more negative affect than matched heterosexuals. However, the homosexuals were also found to report a higher level of positive affect. This study suggests that co-activated systems of negative and positive emotions facilitate adaptation among young homosexuals.     

The Impact of School Violence on Self-Esteem and Depression Among Taiwanese Junior High School Students

The majority of research on the outcome of school violence has been conducted in Western countries. Empirical studies on how school violence impacts student psychological well-being in a Chinese cultural context are relatively limited. The aim of this study was to address this gap by exploring how student maltreatment by teachers, student perpetration against students, and student victimization by other students affected the self-esteem and depression of 1,376 junior high school students in Taiwan. The current study also explored how gender, family socioeconomic status (SES), student–teacher relationships and peer support moderate the impact of school violence. Structural equation analyses showed that student victimization by students and student perpetration of violence against students successfully predicted depression, but not self-esteem. Student maltreatment by teachers was associated with neither depression nor self-esteem. Multigroup analyses showed that relationships among the variables were similar across gender, family socioeconomic status, or student–teacher relationships. However, the impact of student victimization on depression was stronger for subgroups with a low level of peer support than for those with a high level of peer support. The overall findings suggest that depression is the major consequence of school violence in Taiwan and that the impact of student victimization by fellow students on depression is buffered by positive peer support. Implications for theory, intervention and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Emotional Memories Stemming From a Crisis: A Snapshot of AIDS Activism in Washington,DC (1981–1986)

Emotional memories—described in this article as conscious, protracted memories that reference emotional events from the past—provide powerful qualitative data for social analysts. The reconfigured concept “emotional memories,” a neuroscientific term, is utilized to help describe the long-term effects of affective, historically situated marginalization. The author highlights emotional memories of African American lesbian, gay, and bisexual activists involved in the early years of the AIDS crisis in Washington, DC, and connects these memories to documentation in the archives, which illuminate the source and power of these emotions. The author additionally uses an interdisciplinary lens to sociologically understand collective, yet individual, emotional responses to an epidemic.     

Lockdown babies: Birth and new parenting experiences during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown in South Africa,a cross-sectional study

BackgroundPerceived birth experiences of parents can have a lasting impact on children. We explored the birth and new parenting experiences of South African parents in 2020 during the Covid-19 lockdown.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional online survey with consenting parents of babies born in South Africa during 2020. Factors associated with negative birth emotions and probable depression were estimated using logistic regression.ResultsMost of the 520 respondents were females (n = 496, 95%) who gave birth at private hospitals (n = 426, 86%). Mothers reported having overall positive birth emotions (n = 399, 80%). Multivariable analysis showed that having a preterm baby (aOR 2.89; CI 1.51–5.53) and the mother self-reporting that Covid-19 affected her birth experience (aOR 4.25; CI 2.08–8.68) increased the odds of mothers reporting predominantly negative emotions about their birth. The mother having her preferred delivery method reduced the odds of having negative birth emotions (aOR 0.41; CI 0.25–0.66). Multivariable analysis showed that having predominantly negative emotions about the birth increased the odds of probable minor depression (aOR 3.60; CI 1.93–6.70). Being older reduced the odds of having probable minor depression (25?34 years aOR 0.36; CI 0.10–1.32; 35 years or older aOR 0.25; CI 0.06?0.91).ConclusionsLockdown exacerbated many birth and parenting challenges including mental health and health care access. However, overall experiences were positive and there was a strong sense of resilience amongst parents.     

Socioeconomic Inequalities and Self-Rated Health: A Multilevel Study of Italian Elderly

We adopted a multilevel approach in order to provide a comprehensive overview of the main social and economic differences associated with inequalities in self-rated health, according to the territorial context of residence. We focused on the Italian population aged 65 and over, availing of the most recent data on health conditions in Italy. This study proves the persistence in Italy, a modern welfare state that has one of the best overall healthcare systems in the world, of significant, if not enormous, socioeconomic differences in self-perceived health among the elderly. We found that each component of the socioeconomic status is autonomously correlated with individual perceptions of health, highlighting the importance of considering all of the facets of the individual socioeconomic status in measuring the extent of health inequalities. The lack of a network of relationships was also found to be strongly associated with a poor health status for elderly Italians. Our study also documented the presence of a contextual effect. The proposed multilevel modeling proved to be useful in shedding light on relevant aspects in the field of perceived health and for avoiding misleading results.     

Sexual attraction status and adolescent suicide proneness: the roles of hopelessness, depression, and social support

This study explored the relationship between sexual attraction status (same-sex, both-sex, and opposite-sex) and suicidal behavior in a diverse sample of adolescents (N = 1,533 youth). Adolescents with attractions to both sexes reported greater suicide proneness, recent and lifetime suicidal ideation, and past suicide attempts than those with exclusively opposite-sex attractions; individuals reporting same-sex attractions generally demonstrated moderate elevations on these variables. As hypothesized, both hopelessness and depression mediated the relationship between sexual attraction status and suicide proneness. Social support moderated the mediating effect of depression but not hopelessness in the sexual attraction status-suicide proneness link. Targeting the distress that can be associated with experiencing same-sex or both-sex attractions may enhance suicide prevention efforts, particularly in U.S. youth with reduced social support.     

The Demography of Mental Health Among Mature Adults in a Low-Income,High-HIV-Prevalence Context

Very few studies have investigated mental health in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Using data from Malawi, this article provides a first picture of the demography of depression and anxiety (DA) among mature adults (aged 45 or older) in a low-income country with high HIV prevalence. DA are more frequent among women than men, and individuals affected by one are often affected by the other. DA are associated with adverse outcomes, such as poorer nutrition intake and reduced work efforts. DA also increase substantially with age, and mature adults can expect to spend a substantial fraction of their remaining lifetime—for instance, 52 % for a 55-year-old woman—affected by DA. The positive age gradients of DA are not due to cohort effects, and they are in sharp contrast to the age pattern of mental health that has been shown in high-income contexts, where older individuals often experience lower levels of DA. Although socioeconomic and risk- or uncertainty-related stressors are strongly associated with DA, they do not explain the positive age gradients and gender gap in DA. Stressors related to physical health, however, do. Hence, our analyses suggest that the general decline of physical health with age is the key driver of the rise of DA with age in this low-income SSA context.     

Clinical Outcomes of Enjoying Sexualization Among Lesbian Women

The Enjoyment of Sexualization Scale (ESS) was given to 150 lesbians in addition to measures of self-objectification, negative eating attitudes, and depression. The ESS was found to have acceptable levels of internal consistency reliability with a lesbian sample. Scores on the ESS were lower in this sample than in previously reported research with heterosexual women. Enjoying sexualization was found to moderate the relationship between body shame and both depressive symptomatology and negative eating attitudes. In contrast to findings from a heterosexual sample, lesbians who enjoyed sexualization had smaller relationships between these negative clinical outcomes and body shame than lesbians who did not. For lesbians, enjoying sexualization may serve a protective function against the negative effects of self-objectification. Findings are discussed in terms of body image and perceptions of ideal beauty among lesbians.     

Giving birth: Expectations of first time mothers in Switzerland at the mid point of pregnancy

Problem and background

Despite a generally affluent society, the caesarean section rate in Switzerland has steadily climbed in recent years from 22.9% in 1998 to 33.7% in 2014. Speculation by the media has prompted political questions as to the reasons. However, there is no clear evidence as to why the Swiss rate should be so high especially in comparison with neighbouring countries.

Construct Validity of Unsupportive Attributional Style: The Impact of Life Outcome Controllability

Quality of life for individuals and their communities is greatly affected by the degree of altruism expressed when misfortune occurs. The present study investigated the construct validity of an individual differences variable (i.e., unsupportive attributional style) linked to helping behaviour. Unsupportive attributional style (i.e., the tendency to view others' misfortunes as controllable by the victims) is assessed across a number of negative life outcomes of others using the Reasons for Misfortune Questionnaire (RMQ). Modest evidence of unsupportive attributional style at an intermediate level of situation specificity suggested an empirical examination of the situational referents (negative life outcomes of others) of the construct. The present study revealed large variation in the perceived causal controllability of the negative life outcomes on the RMQ. Confirmatory factor analysis of RMQ data (N = 705) revealed that an excellent fit was provided by an attributional style model that included controllable and uncontrollable situation-types. Thus, when perceived controllability of the negative life outcomes of others was included in the definition of unsupportive attributional style, the estimation of individual differences in controllability perceptions was refined considerably. By linking empirically the situational referents for unsupportive attributional style to the construct definition, the present findings demonstrated the ongoing nature of the process of construct validation. It is clear from the present findings that if systematic variation in the situational referents of attributional styles is unaccounted for in construct definition, individual differences in controllability perceptions (i.e., attributional style) will be underestimated.     

Perceived emotional support from family and friends in members of homosexual, married, and heterosexual cohabiting couples

The purpose of this study was to examine factors that influenced perceptions of emotional support from friends and family in members of gay, lesbian, married, and heterosexual cohabiting couples. Both the individual partner and the couple were used as units of analysis. Using the individual partner scores, perceived emotional support was related to Type of Couple (married perceived more emotional support from family than did gays and lesbians); Sex-Role Self-Concept (undifferentiated individuals perceived the least emotional support from both friends and family); and Source of Support (friends were perceived to provide more emotional support than family). Gays and lesbians, in particular, perceived more emotional support from friends than from family. Individuals reporting high degrees of emotional support from friends were less psychologically distressed than those reporting low degrees of emotional support from friends. Using the couple scores, the above Type of Couple and Source of Support effects were replicated. In addition, partner differences were obtained only in married couples in which wives perceived more emotional support than husbands. Results are discussed in terms of current research in the area of social support.     

Economic disadvantage,perceived family life quality,and emotional well-being in Chinese adolescents: A longitudinal study

Over three consecutive years, Chinese secondary school students experiencing and not experiencing economic disadvantage (n = 280 and 2,187, respectively) responded to measures of perceived family life quality (parenting attributes and parent-child relational quality) and emotional well-being (hopelessness, mastery, life satisfaction and self-esteem). While participants experiencing economic disadvantage generally had more negative perceptions of parenting quality and parent-child relational quality than did adolescents not experiencing economic disadvantage, the differences were more pronounced for the father-adolescent dyad than for the mother-adolescent dyad. Emotional well-being was also different in adolescents with and without economic disadvantage. Although adolescents experiencing different intensity of economic disadvantage differed on some paternal parenting processes, no related differences were observed for other measures of family life quality and emotional well-being. The present study fills the research gap pertinent to the relationship between economic disadvantage and family as well as emotional quality of life in early adolescence in the Chinese culture. This work was financially supported by the Research Grants Council of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong (Grant CUHK4293/03H) and Wofoo Foundation. The author wishes to thank Britta Lee and Joyce Chow for their assistance in collecting the data.     

Comparing Observed and Unobserved Components of Childhood: Evidence From Finnish Register Data on Midlife Mortality From Siblings and Their Parents

In this study, we argue that the long arm of childhood that determines adult mortality should be thought of as comprising an observed part and its unobserved counterpart, reflecting the observed socioeconomic position of individuals and their parents and unobserved factors shared within a family. Our estimates of the observed and unobserved parts of the long arm of childhood are based on family-level variance in a survival analytic regression model, using siblings nested within families as the units of analysis. The study uses a sample of Finnish siblings born between 1936 and 1950 obtained from Finnish census data. Individuals are followed from ages 35 to 72. To explain familial influence on mortality, we use demographic background factors, the socioeconomic position of the parents, and the individuals’ own socioeconomic position at age 35 as predictors of all-cause and cause-specific mortality. The observed part—demographic and socioeconomic factors, including region; number of siblings; native language; parents’ education and occupation; and individuals’ income, occupation, tenancy status, and education—accounts for between 10 % and 25 % of the total familial influence on mortality. The larger part of the influence of the family on mortality is not explained by observed individual and parental socioeconomic position or demographic background and thus remains an unobserved component of the arm of childhood. This component highlights the need to investigate the influence of childhood circumstances on adult mortality in a comprehensive framework, including demographic, social, behavioral, and genetic information from the family of origin.     

Personal and Family Correlates of Suicidal Ideation Among Chinese Adolescents in Hong Kong

Based on the family ecological model, personal (hopelessness, social problem solving, emotional competence) and family (parent-adolescent communication, family functioning) quality of life measures related to adolescent suicidal ideation were examined in 5,557 Secondary 1 to Secondary 4 students in Hong Kong. Results showed that suicidal ideation was positively related to adolescent hopelessness but negatively related to emotional competence, social problem solving, father–adolescent communication, mother–adolescent communication and family functioning. Multiple regression analyses showed that hopelessness was the most important predictor of adolescent suicidal ideation, followed by mother–adolescent communication, family functioning, social problem solving, father–adolescent communication, and emotional competence. Path analyses with and without direct effects showed that hopelessness mediated the effect of personal and family correlates on adolescent suicidal ideation. Theoretical and practice implications of the findings are discussed.