Crowding and mental health |
| |
Authors: | John J Schwab Stephen E Nadeau George J Warheit |
| |
Institution: | 1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Louisville, P.O. Box 35260, 40232, Louisville, Kentucky 2. J. Hillis Miller Health Center, University of Florida, Box J-256, 32601, Gainesville, Florida
|
| |
Abstract: | An epidemiologic investigation of the mental needs and services of 1645 respondents, aged 17 to 92 years and living in a representative southeastern county in Florida, revealed that 7.8% of the sample lived in crowded conditions. The crowded respondents scored significantly higher than did the uncrowded on both a depression scale and on the Health Opinion Survey. Associations between crowding and high scores on both scales were strongest among: (1) respondents in the childrearing and middle years of life, (2) blacks at all income levels, (3) whites in the intermediate annual family income range of $6000 to $9999, and especially, females rather than males. Consistently, the crowded black population, and particularly, crowded white women, had much higher scores than did the uncrowded women. A multiple regression analysis showed that three variables—being a female, having a lower income, and crowding—accounted for 16.5% of the variance. The discussion emphasizes that the relationship between crowding and higher scores on indices of emotional distress is quite complicated. In crowded situations, depression may be a costly, semi-adaptive reaction to excessive interpersonal stimulation. Women living in crowded situations appear to be at high risk for depressive illness; their plight brings to mind the classic animal experiments which showed that the maternal behavior of females deteriorated in crowded situations. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|