The objectives of the proposed research are to replicate and extend recent research on psychosocial risk factors in the etiology of depressive phenomena. The data set which will be used is composed of a probability sample of 6,928 adults surveyed in Alameda County, California, in 1965, a panel of 4,864 of these 1965 respondents who provided data in a follow-up study conducted in 1973-74, and a 50 percent subsample (n=1,799) of this panel followed-up again in 1982-83. Data on the same basic measures were collected at each of the three points in time. A subset of these groups consists of couples in which both members completed questionnaires. There were 2,480 couples in 1965 and 1,447 in 1974 still married to the same person as in 1965. Analyses will focus on the relationship of three classes of putative psychosocial risk factors to nonclinical depression: status attributes, personal resources and life stress. The status attributes of primary interest are age, gender, marital status, socieconomic status, and employment. Personal resources include measures of coping style and social networks, as well as health practices. Life stress is measured using data on object loss, illness, other life events of an undesirable or threatening nature (such as job loss, marital disruption), and life strain (marital strain, job strain, parental responsibility, economic strain.) Using couples data, it also will be possible to examine the issue of concordance on nonclinical depression and depression in the spouse as a risk for depression in subjects. The dependent measure is an 18-item index of depressive symptoms developed by the Principal Investigator. Data analysis will proceed in three phases. In the first, the 1965 survey data will be used to reexamine the role of various of the psychosocial risk factors in nonclinical depression, using cross-sectional data. In the second phase, these initial results will be reexamined using the 1965-74 panel to assess the presence, magnitude, and direction of the effects identified in the initial phase, using a two-wave prospective design. In the third phase, this line of inquiry will be expanded using the 1965-74-83 three-wave panel subsample.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter