Samuel Himmelfarb

The Prevalence and Correlates of Anxiety Symptoms in Older Adults

An anxiety symptom scale was administered to a community sample of 713 males and 1338 females representative of persons aged 55 and older in Kentucky and quite similar to that of the US population in that age range. On the basis of a cutting point established previously, 17.1% of the males and 21.5% of the females were estimated to experience sufficient anxiety symptoms to place them at risk so as to require some form of intervention. In addition to gender and marital status differences, the study found a systematic but complex relationship between anxiety and age within this age range. Anxiety was inversely associated with socioeconomic status, education, and urban dwelling. Anxiety was inversely and highly correlated with physical health, and related to the presence of nine specific medical conditions and the need for and use of a number of medical services. The implications of the findings regarding the use of medical services for early diagnosis and treatment for mental health needs are discussed.

Validity of Forced Responses in a Randomized Response Model

An empirical test was conducted to determine the degree to which respondents would follow the directions of the randomizing device in the directed response model of the randomized response technique (RRT). The results showed that a sizable percentage of the respondents would not give the directed response to a question if that response was a socially undesirable one and the question was sufficiently sensitive.

Effects of attachment bereavement and pre-event conditions on subsequent depressive symptoms in older adults.

A sample of 1,411 older adults (age 55+) who had been interviewed both prior to and after bereavement were studied, allowing for pre-event controls. Those who had lost a parent, spouse, or child had the strongest depressive reactions, as predicted by an attachment-bonding hypothesis; however, material losses were also related to depression. Although bereavement/loss events were clearly related to subsequent depression even after pre-event depression, resources, and events were controlled, certain pre-event characteristics were predictive of the bereavement/loss events, including prior undesirable events, age, and urban/rural residency. A further analysis of 1,007 persons with two post-event interviews (at 6-month to 1-year follow-up) revealed an initial depressive reaction to a bereavement/loss event, which then dissipated completely within 1 years time. Generally, bereavement appeared to have limited etiologic importance.

Effects of Bereavement/Loss and Pre-Event Status on Subsequent Physical Health in Older Adults.

Males and females aged fifty-five and older were interviewed before and after three types of bereavement/loss: attachment bereavement (child, spouse, parent), nonattachment bereavement (sibling, grandchild, close friend), and other losses (nonbereavements). Five measures of health were used. Before pre-event health was accounted for on self-report measures of health status and medical conditions, pre-event measures of environmental factors and impact measures of bereavement/loss events had significant but modest effects on post-event health. However, after pre-event health was taken into account, the effects of bereavement and other losses were pale in comparison. Bereavement/loss events were not related to subsequent deaths, health events, or the use of medical services. Environmental factors were modestly predictive of nonattachment bereavements and other losses. An unexpected finding was that other losses had stronger effects on health than bereavements. Trend analysis over eighteen months showed a modest decline in health status immediately after a loss event, followed by an improvement in health. In general, this older adult sample handled bereavements and other losses with minimal morbidity and mortality.

The Multi-Item Randomized Response Technique

The randomized response technique (RRT) attempts to reduce social desirability bias in self-reports by creating a probabilistic relationship between the response given and the question posed. The multi-item RRT extends the RRT procedure to scales composed of multiple items. The multi-item RRT reduces the added variability contributed by the procedure and affords more accurate estimates of parameters than does a single-item RRT. Formulas are presented for correcting the mean, standard deviation, and correlation coefficient for the procedure. Data are presented from a study (Jarman 1996) of male date rape to illustrate the application of the multi-item RRT. Those data show higher reports of rape-supportive attitudes, beliefs, and sexual aggression under RRT conditions.

An empirical test of the unrelated question randomized response technique

An empirical test was conducted to determine the degree to which respondents, interviewed using the unrelated question randomized response technique (RRT), would truthfully answer the nonsensitive question when directed to by the randomization outcome if that answer could be jeopardizing should it pertain to the sensitive question. Depending on the sensitive question, between 2% and 10% of the respondents did not answer the unrelated question truthfully. However, these percentages were much smaller than were previously found for the directed response RRT.

An Examination of Testing Effects in a Panel Study of Older Persons

Testing effects have been obtained on attitudinal and cognitive variables in studies typically conducted on college students in which the pretest-posttest interval usually was several days or weeks. In an effort to expand our knowledge of testing effects, an assessment of testing was incorporated into a panel study of the mental health, social and psychological resources, and stressful life events of older persons. Conceivably, prior assessment of life events might produce greater subsequent recollection of events in the pretest-posttest interval. Also, the rapport established in the initial interview together with previous discussion of possible physical and mental health symptoms might yield greater disclosures of illness in a subsequent interview. In a multistage sample survey, seven out of eight dwellings in the selected segments were randomly assigned to be in the panel group; the eighth dwelling was assigned to the control group. A total of 2,042 persons 55 years and older living in the panel dwellings were interviewed on Wave 1 and reinterviewed with the same instruments six months later on Wave 2; 248 persons in the control group were interviewed only on Wave 2. Comparisons between the two groups on six measures of mental health, several measures of physical health, self-esteem and social support scales, and five measures of life events found no evidence for testing effects.

Note On "the Randomized Response Approach" Addendum to Fox and Tracy

This addendum updates Fox and Tracys (1980) summary of work on the randomized response technique (RRT). It notes the recent development of an additive constants model for sensitive questions that require a numerical response. It further calls the readers attention to the possibility of correlational research using RRT models by presenting the derivation of the correlation and correction for attentuation between two variables measured by the additive constants model and by noting a paper that does the same for several other RRT models.