Personal Resources and the Social Distribution of Depression

Abstract

This paper addresses the hypothesis that gender, age, marital status, and SES matter for depression partly because of associated differences in the availability and/or impact of the personal resources of mastery and self-esteem. It is argued that findings indicating that the social distributions of these resources complement those for depression would provide preliminary support for this hypothesis. Based on a large urban community sample (n = 1,390), our findings fail to support the availability hypothesis in relation to marital status, provide only modest support in reference to age and gender, but yield compelling support in relation to socioeconomic status (SES). Indeed, variations in the availability of these resources, especially mastery, provide a largely, if not entirely, adequate explanation for the SES-depressive symptoms relationship and accounts for nearly half of the SES-Major Depressive Disorder relationship. Although the significance of mastery was more pronounced among women and unmarried persons, such differences did not contribute to understanding observed gender or marital status variations in depression.

Links in the chain of adversity following job loss: How financial strain and loss of personal control lead to depression, impaired functioning, and poor health.

“…In addition, because we have data only on depressive symptoms in the present sample, we cannot make strong claims about the likely impact of job loss and financial strain on major depressive episodes as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. However, results reported by Turner et al (1999) measuring the relationship among life events, mastery, and depression in which both measures of depressive symptoms and measures of depressive disorder were available showed parallel effects for both symptoms and disorder. The measurements of role and emotional functioning are also self-reports in the present study; however, previous research by Vinokur et al (1995) clearly shows that self-reports of role and emotional functioning are strongly correlated with independent observations collected from spouses and significant others.…”

The important role of sense of coherence in relation to depressive symptoms for Taiwanese family caregivers of cancer patients at the end of life

“…The inclusion of SOC in the final step of hierarchical multiple regression analysis increased the R 2 by 0.215, yielding a final model that explained a total of 65.9% of the variance in caregiver depressive symptoms. Researchers [18,19,29,56] suggested that, compared with other variables, psychological resources may account for the larger part of the variances in caregiver outcomes. Turner et al [56] reported that demographic risk factors only account for 10% of the observed variability in depressive symptoms.…”

“…Researchers [18,19,29,56] suggested that, compared with other variables, psychological resources may account for the larger part of the variances in caregiver outcomes. Turner et al [56] reported that demographic risk factors only account for 10% of the observed variability in depressive symptoms. When either mastery or self-esteem is added, the explained variance dramatically increases to 26%, and when both resources are considered, it increases to an impressive 33%.…”

Understanding the association between socioeconomic status and physical health: Do negative emotions play a role?

“…E. Ross & Mirowsky, 1989), negative work characteristics (Stansfeld et al, 1998), and intrapersonal resources (e.g., Lachman & Weaver, 1998;Mirowsky et al, 1996;C. E. Ross & Mirowsky, 1989;Turner, Lloyd, & Roszell, 1999) help explain low-SES individuals' excess vulnerability to distress provide direct support for the moderating roles of reserve capacity resources (although see contradictory evidence in Murrell & Norris, 1991;Thoits, 1982Thoits, , 1984. For example, Turner and Noh (1983) found that individuals with low SES but high social support and perceived control did not display elevated emotional distress relative to those with high social status.…”