Ethnic differences in the marital status and psychological distress relationship

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between marital status, as a measure of social support, and psychological distress among three ethnic minorities (Japanese Americans, Filipino Americans, and Native Hawaiians) and Caucasians in Hawai'i. A secondary analysis is conducted on survey data collected from a statewide sample of adults. The analyses show that the relationship between marital status and distress conforms to expectations among Caucasians: married adults have a lower level of distress than the non-married. However, the marital status and distress relationship is not consistent across ethnic minorities. We discuss the implications of these findings to the study of social support and distress among ethnic minorities.

After theSa-i-gu (April 29) Los Angeles riots: Correlates of subjective well-being in the Korean-American community

“…In addition to the functional aspects of social support, the mere existence or the quantity of social relationships-social integration-has also been found to be a significant correlate of health and subjective well-being (e.g., Diener, 1984;House & Kahn, 1985). Social integration variables such as being married, being employed, or being a member of some social clubs have been frequently investigated (e.g., Diener, 1984;Takeuchi & Speechley, 1989). For Korean Americans, the extent of personal involvement with religious activities is an important index of social integration because church activities constitute the core of many Korean-American families in Los Angeles (Park, 1988).…”

“…of different ethnic groups, as well as within specific ethnic groups (Sasao & Sue, in press). Although ethnic-racial diversity has been stressed in community psychology's research and practice since its inception at the Swampscott Conference (Bennett et al, 1966), systematic investigations of subjective well-being amid rapidly changing and diverse social relationships have been relatively meager (e.g., House, Landis, & Umberson, 1988;Landrine & Klonoff, 1992; Loo, Fong, & Iwamasa, 1988;Takeuchi & Speechley, 1989).…”

Prevalence and correlates of psychological distress among a national population-based sample of adults in Solomon Islands

“…Compared to women who were never married or married in this study, women who were divorced, separated, or widowed had higher odds for psychological distress. Previous studies showed that being married was protective against psychological distress (Mthembu et al, 2017; Takeuchi & Speechley, 1989).…”

“…Factors associated with psychological distress include sociodemographic variables, biopsychosocial stressors, and poor health behaviour. Sociodemographic factors associated with psychological distress include female sex (Cockerham et al, 2006; Kuriyama et al, 2009; Matud et al, 2015; Mthembu et al, 2017), older age in South Africa (Mthembu et al, 2017), younger age in South Australia (Chittleborough et al, 2011), not married (Mthembu et al, 2017; Takeuchi & Speechley, 1989), low education (Chittleborough et al, 2011; Enticott et al, 2016), low income (Caron & Liu, 2011; Chittleborough et al, 2011), lower subjective social status (Sakurai et al, 2010), lower socioeconomic status (Myer et al, 2008), lower wealth (Enticott et al, 2016), unemployed (Mthembu et al, 2017), and lower social capital (Chittleborough et al, 2011; Kuriyama et al, 2009; Myer et al, 2008).…”

Prevalence and correlates of psychological distress among national community-based adult populations in Nauru, Tukelau and Tuvalu

“…Several studies showed that lower socioeconomic status (Caron and Liu, 2011; Chittleborough et al, 2011; Enticott et al, 2016; Myer et al, 2008), female sex (e.g. Matud et al, 2015; Mthembu et al, 2017), not married (Mthembu et al, 2017; Pengpid & Peltzer, 2021b, Takeuchi & Speechley, 1989) and were associated with PD. History of adverse life events (Caron & Liu, 2011; Lui et al, 2018), such as alcohol related problems in the family and family history of suicide or suicide attempt (Pengpid & Peltzer, 2021a), including the diagnosis of a serious disease, such as cardiovascular disease (Chittleborough et al, 2011; Kuriyama et al, 2009; Pengpid & Peltzer, 2021a, 2021b), have also been found associated with PD.…”