Ralph Catalano

Health effects of economic instability: A test of economic stress hypothesis.

Longitudinal survey data describing 6,190 subjects are analyzed using log-linear methods to determine which, if any, of three hypothesized links between short-term community economic change and illness or injury is correct. The first possible link assumes that economic contraction increases the incidence of undesirable job and financial events that, in turn, increase the incidence of illness and injury. The second possible connection assumes that economic change per se increases the incidence of undesirable job and financial events and, therefore, the incidence of illness and injury. The third connection assumes that economic change per se increases the incidence of all job and financial events and therefore the incidence of illness and injury. The data support the first hypothesized connection, but the process is observed only in middle socio-economic status respondents. While undesirable job and financial experiences increase the likelihood of illness or injury for high and low SES groups, high SES respondents are less likely to experience such events during periods of contraction of the local economy than during expansion. The risk of low SES respondents having undesirable job and financial events did not vary longitudinally with the performance of the local economy.

Economic, life, and disorder changes: Time-series analyses

Implicit in recent social science research and political discussions is a model linking the economy to mental disorder through the intervening constructs of life change and trauma. Using time-series analysis of a 16-month survey in Kansas City, Missouri (n = 1,140), economic and noneconomic life events and the Midtown scale were predicted using a variety of economic measures for the standard metropoliton statistical area. Both life event variables and the symptom measure were related positively to unemployment, and absolute economic change measures lagged 1 and 2 months. However, the life event variables were not strongly associated with the Midtown scale. Most striking of the subgroup findings was that, on the Midtown scale, the low-income group was more responsive than the middle-income group to economic fluctuations.

The interaction of stressful life events and chronic strains on community mental health

One of the possible adaptive costs of coping with stress is diminished capacity to respond to subsequent adaptive demands. This paper examined the complex interplay between major life events and one source of chronic strain. Residents of the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area exposed to higher levels of smog, who had also experienced a recent stressful life event, exhibited poorer mental health than those exposed to pollution who had not experienced a recent stressful life event. There were, however, no direct effects of smog levels on mental health. These patterns of results were replicated in both a cross-sectional and a longitudinal study. The interplay of psychosocial vulnerability and environmental conditions is discussed.

The timing of major life events: effects of departing from the social clock.

It is widely believed that social norms govern the timing of major life events, such that events experienced off time are considerably more stressful than events experienced on time. Experiencing life events either earlier or later than ones peers presumably reduces opportunities for social support and may also invite social disapproval. Relatively few empirical studies have investigated these ideas, however, and those that have suffer from several limitations. The present study made use of a general population survey to investigate the effects of normative versus nonnormative timing of major life events on psychological functioning, interpersonal resources, and interpersonal tensions. Desirable and undesirable events were examined separately, as were the effects of departures from perceived versus statistical age norms. The results of the study offered only limited support for social clock theory. Implications for further research and for the relevance of the theory in a less age-differentiated society are discussed.

The Economy As Stressor: A Sectoral Aanalysis∗

Recent analyses have empirically linked two lines of research which together shed new light on the etiology of adaptation related disorders. The first of these lines, the stressful life events research, suggests a positive association between the self-reported experience of certain events and the onset of subsequent health and behavioral problems. The second has discovered a longitudinal relationship between eco? nomic indicators and such archival health indices as infant and heart disease mortality and institutionalization for behavioral disorders. These research foci have been conceptually linked by the hypothesis that economic fluctuation affects the incidence of stressful life events which in turn influence longitudinal variation in health and be? havioral problems. This hypothesis has been supported by recent em? pirical analyses. These tests, however, did not determine if the inci? dence of life events varied with different sectors of the economy as would be predicted by economic theory. This paper describes the mea? surement of the longitudinal relationship between change in the basic and dependent sectors of the Kansas City metropolitan economy and the number of stressful life events experienced by a sample of residents. I. THE STRESSFUL LIFE EVENTS RESEARCH The literature reporting a positive relationship between the exper? ience of life events which require adaptation and the onset of health and behavioral problems is voluminous and has been reviewed else? where. [Dohrenwend & Dohren wend, 1974] The theoretical model underlying this research assumes that health is an equilibrium state between the physical and social Stressors present in an individuals en? vironment and his or her actual or perceived ability to cope with them. This equilibrium state is supposedly perturbed by changes in the num? ber or intensity of Stressors. Physiological and behavioral adjustment strategies are assumed to put the organism at risk of disease processes and maladaptive behavior.

Money and mental disorder: Toward behavioral cost accounting for primary prevention

This paper reviews recent retrospective sociological research suggesting that rises as well as falls in the economy are associated with such indicators of mental disorder as suicide and mental hospitalization. The review emphasizes that a lag exists between economic change and the changes in associated mental indicators. It is suggested that these findings hold promise both for early warning for practitioners and for primary prevention. Also described is a survey in four centers of 93 community mental health workers, indicating that such workers are receptive to the use of such economic indicators but not well-informed about them. Suggestions are made for prospective research to relate economic change to mental disorder through such intervening constructs as life change and stress. Such research, it is hoped, would expand the capacities of community psychologists to account for the behavioral costs of economic policy alternatives.

A test of reciprocal risk between undesirable economic and noneconomic life events

The proposition that undesirable life experiences are risk factors for each other was explored by testing several hypotheses concerning the temporal relationships between economic and noneconomic life events. The tests were conducted using data describing the incidence of stressful experiences among approximately 3,500 Anglo and Hispanic residents of Los Angeles County. Findings suggested that Anglo men who have undesirable economic life experiences are at increased risk of subsequent undesirable noneconomic experiences. Anglo women, however, exhibited the opposite pattern in that those with undesirable noneconomic experiences were at greater risk of subsequent undesirable economic experiences. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed.

The relation of economic conditions, social support, and life events to depression

Evidence for a connection between recession and psychopathology has come from aggregate and individual-level studies. The aggregate studies cannot identify particular mechanisms (e.g., personally experienced life changes caused by the economy versus anticipation of stress on the basis of perceived community conditions versus the interaction of the two). Individual-level studies rarely control for earlier symptoms or, if they do, never include a measure of aggregate conditions (making a cross-level analysis). This study is novel in that it crosses levels of analysis, controls for earlier symptoms, replicates the tests in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan sites, and controls for social support and social support buffering effects. Economic conditions did not affect covariate-adjusted depression directly or in interaction with events, and life events (including economic ones) accounted for little variance in adjusted depression. Controlling for prior symptoms also eliminated the main and buffering effects of social support. The negative results from this cross-level, panel approach raises doubts about the “recession-causes-psychopathology” view and, by inference, lends credence to rival views, such as, “recession-uncovers-pathology.”

Air pollution and depressive symptomatology: Exploratory analyses of intervening psychosocial factors

Exploratory modelling revealed associations of individual perceptions, social factors, and physical components of air pollution with depressive symptomatology. Residents of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area who have experienced a recent, undesirable life event and who perceive poor air quality in their neighborhood have greater symptoms of depression. These effects control for socioeconomic status and prior psychological status. In addition we show that perceived air quality is a function of both toxic components of ambient air as well as individual psychosocial experiences.

Age Differences in Workers’ Efforts to Cope with Economic Distress

The idea that people of different ages may cope with stressful life events quite differently is a recurring theme in the literature on stress and adaptation. Yet neither current theories nor existing empirical evidence offer a consistent picture of such life-course variations. Some theorists, for example, argue that coping efforts in old age are marked by regression to immature, ineffective defense mechanisms (Guttman, 1964, 1974; Pfeiffer, 1977). Others argue that, as a result of lifelong experience in adapting to stressful situations, older adults exhibit equanimity and maturity in their efforts to cope with stressful events (e.g., Denney, 1982; Vaillant, 1977). Moreover, as these two examples illustrate, work on life-course variations in coping is motivated by prescriptive as well as descriptive concerns. That is, investigators have attempted not only to document and describe age differences in coping styles but also to evaluate the maturity or adequacy of various coping styles, sometimes on the basis of clinical judgment or theoretical criteria rather than empirical evidence of effectiveness (e.g., Frydman, 1981; Haan, 1977; Vaillant, 1977).