Kevin M. Fitzpatrick

Social assets and mental distress among the homeless: exploring the roles of social support and other forms of social capital on depression.

This paper explores the role of social capital in mediating the effects of stressors on depression among a disadvantaged population. Utilizing a survey of 155 homeless people in a mid-sized southern U.S. city, the authors address the relevance of social capital for quality of life. The paper provides a critical test of whether social support and other forms of social capital matter when monetary and human capital is extremely limited. Under these resource-restricted circumstances does social capital add to our understanding of the distress process or does it merely restate the well established relationship between social support and quality of life outcomes? Various forms of social capital are measured: religious social capital, group participation, social trust, and bridging social capital along with a commonly used measure of social support -- perceived strong tie support. Findings suggest that social capital matters for even the most resource poor populations. In addition, social capital variables add significantly to the variance explained in depressive symptomatology over and above that traditionally explained by perceived social support.

Social Capital and Adolescent Violent Behavior: Correlates of Fighting and Weapon Use among Secondary School Students

This study explores the relationship between social capital and adolescent violent behaviors for a national sample of secondary school students (N = 4,834). Cross-sectional data from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were used to evaluate multivariate models examining the family, school and neighborhood correlates of violent behaviors. Results demonstrate the importance of social capital factors across domains as significant resources moderating violence outcomes, especially parent-child relationships and school affiliation. Although we hypothesized that greater sports and club participation would decrease tendencies toward violence, results indicate otherwise.

Just Thinking about It Social Capital and Suicide Ideation among Homeless Persons

Suicide ideation is a sensitive indicator of personal well-being. While ideation occurs in roughly 3 percent of the US population annually, in this study rates are 10 times higher. This article explores the role of social capital in mediating negative life circumstances on ideation for a sample of 161 homeless adults in a mid-sized Southern US metropolitan area. Our results imply that social capital does not function the same way for homeless persons as it does for the general population. This finding supports growing evidence that social capitals much touted benefits for personal well-being may not apply to disadvantaged populations.

Social inequalities in adolescent depression: The role of parental social support and optimism

Aims: Interpersonal theory suggests relationships between socio-economic status (SES) and adolescent psychopathology mediated by negative parenting. This study examines the role of perceived parental social support and optimism in understanding adolescents’ depression and self-rated health among a sample of Hungarian youth. Methods: Using a self-administered questionnaire, data (N = 881) were collected from high-school students (14–20 years old) in Szeged, Hungary (a regional centre in the southeastern region, near to the Serbian border, with a population of 170,000 inhabitants). To analyse the overall structure of the relationship between objective/subjective SES, parental support, optimism and health outcomes (depression, self-perceived health), structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed. Results: Findings suggest the following: (1) SES variables generate social inequalities in adolescent depression through parental social support, particularly maternal support; and (2) parents provide youths with different levels of social support that in turn may strengthen or weaken optimism during the socialization process. Conclusions: In addressing depression prevention and treatment, we may want to take into account socio-economic differences in social networks and levels of optimism, which may influence youths’ psychosocial adjustment and development of psychopathology.

The Jailing of America’s Homeless: Evaluating the Rabble Management Thesis

The authors of this article test hypotheses derived from Irwin’s rabble management thesis. The analysis uses data from 47,592 interviews conducted with jailed adults in 30 U.S. cities as part of the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring program. Clearly, homeless persons are overrepresented among those arrested and booked into local jails. Bivariate analysis support a fundamental assertion of the rabble management thesis: Homeless are jailed not because of their dangerousness but rather their offensiveness. Homeless arrestees are distinct from their domiciled counterparts in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, previous experiences with alcohol and drug treatment, mental health, criminal justice systems, and alcohol and drug use histories. In addition, homeless are less likely than domiciled arrestees to be jailed for felonies and violent crimes but more likely to be charged with maintenance and property crimes. Logistic regression models confirm these differences, even after other factors are controlled. A discussion of the policy implications of these findings follows.

Suicide Ideation and Attempts among Low-Income African American Adolescents

We examined the impact of risk and protective factors on the odds that African American adolescents seriously think about or attempt suicide. Data from students in grades 5-12 in a mostly urban, southeastern U.S. school district were analyzed. Findings support earlier work documenting differences in gender and grades. Risk factors were uniformly significant in understanding both ideation and attempts. Protective factors were not consistent predictors; the lowering role of religious protective factors was limited, though students belonging to or their perception of belonging to a spiritual community was a significant factor in lowering the odds of suicide ideation.

Religiosity as a Protective Factor Against Substance Use Among Hungarian High School Students

Gender differences in the relationship between religiosity and substance use (lifetime prevalence and current use) were examined among high school students in Szeged, Hungary (N = 881). Experimenting with and consuming tobacco and alcoholic beverages were characteristic in the sample to a great extent, whereas marijuana use was not as frequent. Logistic regression analyses were employed to test how variables of religiosity, that is, denominational affiliation, religiosity, and religious attendance, were related to substance use of youth by gender. Our findings confirmed the importance of the protective role of religious involvement, particularly among females.

Factors Associated with Health-Compromising Behavior Among the Homeless

This exploratory study examined a set of sociodemographic, risk, and protective factors associated with health-compromising behavior among the homeless. One hundred and sixty-one homeless adults living in a midsize, southern metropolitan area were surveyed. Information was collected using structured in-depth interviews that assessed residential and event histories, life circumstances, mental and physical health symptoms, and health-related risk behaviors (drug and alcohol use, risky sexual practices, sleeping outdoors, aggressive behavior, and weapon possession). Descriptive results showed differences in health-compromising behavior for ascribed characteristics such as age, race, and gender. Younger people, nonwhites, and men took more risks. Multivariate results indicated that while sociodemographic risk factors were important predictors of health-compromising behavior for people who are homeless, other variables, including childhood memories, victimization, and local nativism, were also significant. The implications of these findings are explored in the larger context of a social policy framework.

Socioeconomic inequalities in mental well-being among Hungarian adolescents: A cross-sectional study

IntroductionAccording to several empirical studies, mental well-being is significant in adolescence; adolescent´s social network is undergoing radical changes while at the same time depression is increasing. The primary goal of our study is to determine whether socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with mental health status of Hungarian adolescents and the strength and nature of this association.MethodsOur sample was comprised of three high schools of Debrecen (the second largest city of Hungary). Data were collected in January 2013. In all, 471 students filled out the questionnaire from 22 classes (14´18 years old). `Absolute´ (education and occupational status of the parents, assessed by the adolescent) and `subjective´ (self-assessment of family´s social class) SES measures and five mental health indicators (shyness, loneliness, need to belong, psychosomatic symptoms, self-esteem) were involved. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression analyses were used to examine the relationships between family SES and mental health indicators.ResultsOur results indicate that association between adolescents´ `subjective´ SES and mental well-being is not gradient-like. Manual employment and unemployment status of both parents also proved to be significant determinants of mental health status.ConclusionsAccording to our results, professionals of school-based mental health programs should consider students whose parents are unemployed or have manual occupational status as a high risk group in terms of mental well-being.

Psychosocial factors as mediators of food insecurity and weight status among middle school students.

Research regarding the association between food insecurity and weight status among youth has produced mixed results. However, few studies on this topic have utilized data that includes survey responses from children themselves regarding their experience with food insecurity. This study was undertaken to examine the association between food insecurity and weight status among youth, as well as the potential mediation by psychosocial factors. A survey of 5th-7th grade students was administered to gather information on food insecurity, social and psychological resources, and health. The primary analysis includes OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) regression conducted using SPSS software and Sobels test for mediation. Results suggest a positive association between food insecurity and weight status even when controlling for key demographic variables. In addition, we find that this association is mediated by psychosocial factors-namely, perceived social status and depression. Insights from this work highlight the need to consider non-nutritional pathways through which food insecurity impacts health as well the need to continue surveying youth directly when examining their experiences with food insecurity.