Michael Hughes

Does marriage have positive effects on the psychological well-being of the individual?

Although a large number of studies show a correlation between marital status and mental health, the relative magnitude of the relationship, as compared to the strength of the relationship of other variables related to mental health, is not known. In this empirical evaluation, it is shown that in the present data, marital status is the most powerful predictor of the mental health variables considered. Data are then used to show that it is the quality of a marriage and not marriage per se that links marriage to positive mental health. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the psychological functions of marriage.

Self-Perceptions of Black Americans: Self-Esteem and Personal Efficacy

This study examines the determinants of personal self-esteem, racial self-esteem, and personal efficacy in a 1980 national sample of black Americans. The findings show that the three dimensions are interrelated each is anchored in interpersonal relations with family and friend. However, the three dimensions are produced by fundamentally different processes. Personal self-esteem is most strongly influenced by microsocial relations with family, friends, and community, while personal efficacy is generated through experiences in social statuses embedded in macrosocial systems of social inequality. We conclude that black self-esteem is insulated from systems of racial inequality, while personal efficacy is not, and suggest that this explains why black Americans have relatively high self-esteem but low personal efficacy. The belief that racial discrimination, rather than individual failure, accounts for low achievement among blacks is irrelevant to personal self-esteem and personal efficacy. In contrast, racial self-esteem is produced by a combination of education, interracial contact, and ideological processes.

Socialization and racial identity among black Americans

This study examines the social structural processes and arrangements related to racial group identification for a national sample of black American adults. We argue that primary socialization experiences, particularly parental messages concerning the meaning of being black, are important in shaping racial identity. The findings support this prediction; further, they suggest that adult relations with family, friends, and community are important in fostering a sense of group identity. Findings also suggest that integration into mainstream society, as reflected in interracial contact and adult socioeconomic attainment, is associated with less in-group attachment but more positive black group evaluation. Adult SES and interracial contact bolster black group evaluation. Collectively, these findings support a multidimensional conceptualization of black identity.

Living alone, social integration, and mental health.

This study is an examination of the effects of living alone on mental health, mental well-being, and maladaptive behaviors. The findings may be summarized in three basic points. First, there is no evidence that persons who live alone are selected into that living arrangement because of preexisting psychological problems, noxious personality characteristics, or incompetent socioeconomic behavior. Second, contrary to what would be predicted by structural functionalism or symbolic interactionism, the data analysis in this study shows that unmarried persons who live alone are in no worse, and on some indicators are in better, mental health than unmarried persons who live with others. Furthermore, divorced and never-married persons who live alone have more in common with married persons, in terms of their mental health characteristics, than do such persons who live with others. Third, unmarried persons who live alone show a slight tendency to be more likely to engage in maladaptive behaviors such as drug and alcohol use than are unmarried persons who live with others. These findings have implications for our thinking about the effects of social integration on mental health; the results raise the posibility that socially integrated relationships which provide not only (1) direct social rewards through reinforcement and increased meaning in life but also (2) regulation of behavior through mechanisms of social constraint, obligation, and responsibility, may entail not only rewards but also costs. For persons who live in socially integrated relationships, if the decrements to mental health produced by social regulation are not balanced by social rewards through some as yet unknown process, such social integration may help create psychological distress.

The continuing significance of race: a study of race, class, and quality of life in America, 1972-1985.

There has been a great deal of interest recently in the issue of whether or not race has been declining in significance relative to social class in American society. The present paper evaluates the significance of race for psychological well-being and quality of life over the years 1972 to 1985 using data from the General Social Survey. Our analysis shows that blacks score consistently lower than whites on measures of psychological well-being and quality of life after controls have been introduced for social class variables, age, and marital status. Furthermore, the differences between blacks and whites remained constant between 1972 and 1985. We conclude that the significance of race as a determinant of psychological well-being and quality of life continues in spite of recent changes in the social and legal status of black Americans. Interpretations of these findings are offered.

Possible causes of the apparent sex differences in physical health: an empirical investigation.

For the past fifty years it has been consistently reported that men have higher rates of mortality, while women have higher rates of morbidity. The higher rates of mortality for males can be largely explained by the fact that they have higher rates for the chronic diseases which are the leading causes of death. The explanation of why women have higher rates of morbidity, however, remains unanswered. Recent literature suggests three possible explanations: (1) a greater willingness among women as compared with men to report they are ill and/or to react overtly to an illness, (2) the greater ability of women to adopt the sick role due to their lack of obligations, and (3) the possibility that the reported differences reflect real sex differences in illness. This paper evaluates these explanations and provides support for the view that the sex differences in morbidity are real. The data analyzed show that when one controls for marital status, living arrangements, psychiatric symptoms, and nurturant role obligations, the health differences between men and women disappear.

The Effect of Marriage on the Well-Being of Adults A Theoretical Analysis

We live in a society in which the roles of the individual tend to be both specialized and compartmentalized. Because of the fragmentation of ones relationships it is difficult for an individual to establish a clear identity and to demonstrate to others, and thus oneself, that one is a person of worth. Marriage is a very private relationship and couples are able to develop a social system with its own nomic structure that reflects their attributes and interests. It is a place where ones roles are brought together and decisions are made with regard to how one will perform those roles. An individuals investment in the marital relationship as indicated by time and resources is substantial. It is also an intimate relationship with a high level of emotional involvement and substantial rights and obligations. The primary interaction provided by the marital relationship is thus particularly well suited to the development of a clear definition of the individuals self and worth. Because of these attributes, marriage tends to be strongly related to the well-being of individuals. However, these attributes also often cause conflict and anger in the marital relationship. The benefits of marriage are strongly related to the fact that marriage is a very private relationship. However, because the marital relationship is very personal and private, it tends to be unstable and this instability undercuts many of the benefits derived from marriage. The privacy of marriage also makes effective societal intervention to achieve societal goals particularly difficult.

The Fruits of Cultivation Analysis: A Reexamination of Some Effects of Television Watching

A set of items from the General Social Survey for 1975 and 1977 measuring alienation and fear of walking near ones home at night, which were claimed by Gerbner et al. (1978a) to be related to heavy television watching, are reanalyzed with simultaneous controls for age, sex, race, income, education, hours worked per week outside the home, church attendance, membership in voluntary associations, and population size. The effects of television watching on responses to these items which were claimed by Gerbner et al. are largely absent in this analysis. Items in the same data set used by Gerbner et al., but not included in their analysis are analyzed using the technique above, with results that fail to support the contention of Gerbner and his associates. The implications of these findings for a cultivation theory of television effects are discussed. Michael Hughes is Assistant Professor of Sociology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The author wishes to thank Richard A. Peterson, Walter R. Gove, Cathleen Burnett, Ricky McCarty, Michael R. Wood, Jerome B. Price, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier draft. Also helpful were conversations with Anthony Oberschall, G. Russell Carpenter, John Ryan, Lynn Ballew, and Christian D. Hughes, and research assistance provided by Eileen Covey and Timothy J. Carter. Public Opinion Quarterly ?) 1980 by The Trustees of Columbia University Published by Elsevier North-Holland, Inc. 0033-362X/80/0044-287/

The continuing significance of race revisited : A study of race, class, and quality of life in America, 1972 to 1996

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The Impact of Physical Attractiveness on Achievement and Psychological Well-Being

More than a decade ago, we (Thomas and Hughes 1986) demonstrated that the subjective well-being of African Americans in the United States was significantly and consistently lower than that for whites over the 14-year period from 1972 to 1985. Since then, evidence has accumulated on several important dimensions of well-being that African Americans fare as well as or better than whites, suggesting a change in the pattern observed for nearly 40 years. Using data from the General Social Survey (GSS) for the period 1972 to 1996, we show that quality of life continues to be worse for African Americans than it is for whites, although anomia and mistrust have increased a little more rapidly in recent years for whites than for blacks. Racial disparities in quality of life do not vary by and are not explained by socioeconomic status. Although racial inequality appears to be the primary cause of these differences, the exact processes producing them are as yet unknown.