Marta Elliott

The stress process in neighborhood context.

The positive relation between socio-economic status (SES) and health, both mental and physical, is examined within a stress-process framework. Telephone survey data of adults age 45-74 are analyzed to test the roles of stressors and resources as mediators of the SES-health relation. Next, the stress process is tested in neighborhood context by splitting the sample in half according to residence in lower- or higher-SES neighborhoods. The relative impact of stressors on mental and physical health, and effectiveness of resources in protecting mental and physical health, are tested separately for both types of neighborhoods. The results indicate that social support is only protective of mental and physical health among residents of higher-SES neighborhoods. The implications of the results for future research are discussed.

Religion, Health, and Psychological Well-Being

This study compares the effects of religiosity on health and well-being, controlling for work and family. With 2006 GSS data, we assess the effects of religiosity on health and well-being, net of job satisfaction, marital happiness, and financial status. The results indicate that people who identify as religious tend to report better health and happiness, regardless of religious affiliation, religious activities, work and family, social support, or financial status. People with liberal religious beliefs tend to be healthier but less happy than people with fundamentalist beliefs. Future research should probe how religious identity and beliefs impact health and well-being.

U.S. Military Veterans Transition to College: Combat, PTSD, and Alienation on Campus

U.S. universities are witnessing an influx of student veterans who have been under chronic stress, have suffered injuries, and currently exhibit symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This study utilized quantitative survey data to test a model of what causes alienation on campus among student veterans. We then present quotations from student veterans describing the types of situations they find alienating. The results have direct implications for how student affairs professionals may help veterans succeed in college.

Gender Differences in Causes of Depression

ABSTRACT This study adopts a stress process perspective to analyze gender differences in the causes of depression. The stress process links psychological well-being to position in the social structure via the mediating and moderating effects of stressors and resources. The study examines stressors and resources as mediators of the SES/depression relationship, and resources as moderators of the stressor/depression relationship. Furthermore, it tests the hypotheses that women are more exposed and more vulnerable to stressors than are men, that women benefit more psychologically from socially supportive relationships, and suffer more from conflict-ridden relationships than men. The analysis utilizes survey data of urban Nevadans age 45–74, collected in the Fall of 1997, and employs ordinary least squares regression to test the stress process model. The results indicate that financial strain and perceptions of danger in ones neighborhood mediate the relationship between SES and depression, but resources do not moderate the effects of stressors on depression. Women are more exposed to stressors than men, but are not more vulnerable to them. Positive social relationships do have more beneficial psychological effects for women than for men, but the effects of marital conflict do not vary by gender. Implications for social policy and treatment for depression are discussed.

Work and Family Role Strain Among University Employees

This paper analyzes the determinants of work and family role strain among university employees with data from a survey of faculty and staff of a public university in the Western U.S. The results indicate that difficulties caring for children and elderly dependents are the primary causes of work and family role strain in the family domain, while dissatisfaction with resources and perceived unfair criticism are primary in the work domain. The predictors of work and family role strain are similar for faculty and staff, and for men and women, with one exception: Having a supportive spouse or partner reduces work and family role strain much more for women than it does for men. Implications for university personnel policy are discussed.

Classroom and Family Effects on Children’s Social and Behavioral Problems

The purpose of this article is to document characteristics of kindergarten classrooms that provide resiliency and reduce social and behavioral problems of children during their first year of formal schooling. We analyzed secondary longitudinal survey data of 13,533 kindergartners and 2,411 kindergarten teachers using hierarchical linear modeling to study change in externalizing behaviors and self‐control between the fall and spring of kindergarten. Once family background characteristics were controlled, classroom effects such as children’s overall behavior were analyzed, as were cross‐level interactions between classroom and family effects. The results revealed that good behavior in the classroom and adequacy of classroom supplies were the most consistent predictors of improvement in children’s self‐control and behavior. Furthermore, cross‐level interactions suggested that good behavior in the classroom and supplies can boost resiliency by allowing children to overcome certain deficits at home. Implications for further research and educational policy are discussed.

Gender Differences in the Causes of Work and Family Strain Among Academic Faculty

SUMMARY This paper analyzes gender differences in work and family role strain among academic faculty with survey data from a public university in the Western United States. The results indicate that faculty women and men experience comparable levels of work and family role strain, but differ in the sources of that strain. For women, family conditions are the dominant source of strain, whereas for men, conditions of work matter most. Nonetheless, there are conditions of work and family that increase work and family role strain regardless of gender. These results are discussed in light of evolving gender roles, and the imperative that universities respond to work and family issues.

Subjective and objective fit in religious congregations: Implications for well-being

For most religiously affiliated people, the context of the religious group is a central element of the religious experience, but it is also one that has been relatively neglected in the study of the impact of religion on well-being. This study used social attraction as a framework to examine the role of individual—group fit in three congregations, with respect to four outcomes with implications for overall well-being. Structural equation modeling of survey data indicated that subjective fit with the congregation’s prototype was associated with greater life satisfaction and better self-reported health. Objective fit with observed congregational norms was associated only with greater life satisfaction. These effects were not mediated by existential certainty or by social support.

Subjective accounts of the causes of mental illness in the USA

Background: Psychiatrists and advocates for persons with mental illness in the USA argue that the biomedical model of mental illness as a brain disease is both accurate and effective in reducing stigma. Few studies have queried individuals diagnosed with mental illness to determine the extent to which they define their condition as biologically based versus caused by social and psychological factors. Method: Fifty inpatients in a behavioral health unit of a non-profit hospital in Western USA were interviewed in depth regarding their perceptions of the nature and causes of the condition that brought them into the hospital. Results: The vast majority of patients, regardless of diagnosis, emphasized painful life experiences brought about by others and outside their own control as the primary cause of their mental illness. Conclusions: The biomedical model of mental illness does not necessarily dominate the minds of people with mental illness; therefore mental health practitioners should understand and respect their patients’ explanatory models in order to enlist their trust and compliance.

Religion and well-being in a church without a creed

This study of religion and well-being questions whether adherents of a religion without a specific creed may still derive well-being from their religious experience as do members of more orthodox religious institutions. Survey data from a Unitarian Universalist congregation were analyzed to test whether the relationship between religion and individual well-being in a non-Christian, non-creedal religious institution is similar to that observed in mainstream Christian denominations. Hierarchical linear regression analysis indicates that spirituality, social support, and the centrality of Unitarian Universalism (UU) to personal identity predict the amount of strength and comfort the respondents derived from religion, after controlling for demographic characteristics. Interaction effects between education and theological coherence and between gender and spirituality were also found. These results support the hypothesis that members of non-doctrinal religious groups benefit from religion by means of similar processes as members of religious groups that espouse more orthodox belief with one exception: theological ‘incoherence’ is actually more beneficial to well-being of the highly educated in this context than is theological coherence.