Lynn Robbins

Marital Status and Life Satisfaction among Black Americans.

The relationship between marital status and overall life satisfaction among black Americans is the focus of this study of a probability sample of 373 black women and 253 black men. For women, the married, widowed, and divorced are more satisfied with their lives than are the separated or single. However, when controls for age, social participation, health, adjusted income, and education are introduced, these differences no longer are statistically significant. For men, the married are the least satisfied persons of any category. When the controls are added, married men are significantly less satisfied than are the divorced, separated, and widowed.

Social indicators and mental health planning: An empirical case study

This paper reports data from a series of studies designed to provide an empirical basis for making judgments regarding the utility and validity of social indicators as a method for assessing the need for mental health services. The following findings are included: (a) The methodological sophistication of the social indicators approach used did not greatly affect the utility of the technique as a means of identifying low- and high-need subareas in a large standard metropolitan statistical area. (b) Correlations between social indicator rankings of tracts/enumeration districts and mental health needs as determined by psychiatric scale scores varied in two different counties. (c) The degree of tract/district socioecological homogeneity appears to account for the diverse correlations. (d) Tract and enumeration district social indicator rankings uniquely account for less than .50% of the explained variance of individual mental health scores when analyzed in a regression equation which includes socioeconomic status as a variable.

Sexual maturity as a criterion for classification of phallometric stimulus slides

With the acceptance of behavior modification techniques in the 1970s as the standard modality of treatment of sex offenders, the ability to diagnose the paraphilic arousal patterns became of primary importance. The use of the penile plethysmograph in the assessment of sex offenders is regarded as the most accurate measure of these sexual arousal patterns. This method measures the vasocongestive engorgement of the penile corporea while the offender is exposed to deviant and nondeviant sexual stimuli. The stimuli may be slides of nude males and females of varying ages, audiotaped descriptions of erotic scenarios or videotaped scenes of sexual interaction. Researchers who have used slides to determine the age and gender preference of the sex offenders have typically categorized the slides in arbitrarily established age categories that have varied from one research study to another. The use of age as a criterion does not take into account the variation in growth and maturation among children and adolescents. To increase reliability and standardization of research techniques, the authors propose that the stages of sexual maturity as set forth by Tanner (1962, 1978) be used in lieu of age.

Stressful life events and the decision for surgery for obesity

Abstract Assessment of the levels of stressful life events among 88 morbidly obese patients and 276 comparison adults showed that the morbidly obese had undergone stressful events more frequently during the three years before surgery than the comparison adults over a similar time span. The rate of occurrence of such events in these patients increased markedly in the year preceding surgery. Morbid obesity caused some life events, such as major medical problems, and made coping with other life events more difficult. The data support the hypothesis that stress can rationally motivate adults with chronic medical problems to seek drastic remedial treatment.

Marital Status and Life Satisfaction of Black Men

Although considerable research has addressed the relationship between marital status and perceived well-being, few studies have been of black populations. Particularly neglected has been the study of black men. This research focuses on the relationship between marital status and overall life satisfaction within a probability sample of 253 black men. Married black men are significantly less satisfied than are the unmarried men (including the separated). This difference persists when health, age, SES, and social participation are controlled. The lower life satisfaction of married black men may result primarily from malelfemale relationships damaged by the long history of socioeconomic disadvantages faced by black Americans.