Suzanne T. Ortega

The Maturational and Role Perspectives on Aging and Self Through the Adult Years: An Empirical Evaluation

The role theory of aging and the maturational perspective differ with regard to whether aging is a problematic or positive process. This article looks at the self-concept and self-evaluation of men and women over the adult life course, using data from a large national probability sample. The evidence indicates that as persons age their self-concepts, while not qualitatively different from that of younger persons, contain more positive attributes, fewer negative attributes, and become better integrated. Age is also associated with a positive self-evaluation, as indicated by life satisfaction, self-esteem, and an index of meaninglessness. Ther are some odest gender differences in these age relationships, but, overall, males and females appear to experience aging in similar ways. The general impression is that as persons age they become increasingly comfortable with themselves and their situation. Because it is unlikely that these relationships are due primarily to cohort, period, or compositional effects, the article concludes that the data support a maturational perspective.

Health Status and Access to Care Among Rural Minorities

This paper provides a review of the scholarly and applied literature published between 1970 and 1993 on health and health care access problems among racial and ethnic minority group members living in rural U.S. areas. Results on the distribution of specific illnesses and diseases, and utilization of medical services are summarized for two major minority groups—African Americans and Hispanic Americans. Findings generally document the expected pattern of rural and minority disadvantage. A review of the conceptual and methodological limitations of existing research suggests that research does not yet permit any clear understanding of the underlying structures and processes that give rise to racial health disparities. Very little is known about the health of rural minorities living in some areas of the country, for example, the west north central United States (Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota).

Religious Homogamy and Marital Happiness

Data from a representative sample of 1,070 married Protestants and Catholics were used to examine the relationship between religious homogamy and marital happiness. Although couples may vary in the extent to which they share religious views (e.g., beliefs, values), previous research has treated religious homogamy as a dichotomy; a couple is either homogamous or it is not. A partial explanation for this is that few studies have gone beyond the broad divisions of Protestant, Catholic, and Jew. In the present study religious bodies were classified on the basis of doctrine and ritual, yielding six categories: Baptist, Calvinist, Catholic, fundamentalist, Lutheran, and Methodist. These categories were then used to develop a measure of estimated “religious distance” or degrees of heterogamy. This measure was used to test the hypothesis that the larger the religious distance or disparity, the greater the likelihood of unhappiness with the marriage. The hypothesis was supported by the data.

Modernization, age structure, and regional context: A cross‐national study of crime

Cross‐national research has yielded limited support for the Durkheimian‐modernization hypothesis that economic modernization increases the rate of crime. However, tests of the hypothesis have been flawed because (1) most research has assessed the criminogenic consequences of different levels of economic development rather than changes in development and (2) most studies have failed to control for the confounding effects of changes in the age structure of populations. Using pooled cross‐sectional and time‐series INTERPOL data, results from this study support the Durkheimian‐modernization hypothesis for both homicide and theft rates. Findings also indicate the importance of regional effects in the crime equation.

Socioeconomic Status and Mental Disorder: New Evidence and a Sociomedical Formulation

Despite numerous studies which show that socioeconomic status and mental illness are inversely related, it is possible that this relationship exists for some disorders but not others. Study of approximately 10,000 first admissions to state hospitals in one state covering the period 1956-65 shows an inverse relationship only for organic and schizophrenic disorders. In light of the etiological and predisposing factors that are involved in these two disorders, physical and medical factors appear to be more important than psychological (e.g., stress) factors in mediating the relationship with socioeconomic status. It is concluded, therefore, that a sociomedical formulation (in contrast to a sociopsychiatric formulation) is a plausible interpretation of the relationship between socioeconomic status and mental disorder.

Life satisfaction, self‐esteem, and personal happiness among Mexican and African Americans

This study, using data from the Mexican Origin People in the United States: The 7 979 Chicano Survey and the National Survey of Black Americans, examines variation in religious participation and subjective quality of life across age and racial/ethnic groups. Results from multiple regression analyses demonstrate that Mexican and African Americans differ with respect to self‐esteem, happiness, and life satisfaction, even after controls for sociodemographic characteristics are introduced. Results further show that the subjective consequences of age and religious participation, and to a lesser extent socioeconomic status, differ between the two racial/ethnic groups.

AGE VARIATION IN FEMALE CRIME: IN SEARCH OF THE NEW FEMALE CRIMINAL

Abstract A study of police arrests in two mid-western communities between 1962 and 1980 indicates that age is an important variable specifying the convergence of male and female arrest rates. Comparison of age-adjusted arrest ratios and age-specific rates suggests that the greatest increase in female arrests has been among the middle-aged. Inspection of arrest rates by type of offense and of changing police force characteristics suggests that the “new female criminal” is more a product of economic pressure and police practices than of economic opportunity and attitude change.

Urban/Rural Differences in the Structure and Consequences of Social Support

Perhaps no pattern in psychiatric epidemiology has received as much attention as the inverse relationship between socioeconomic variables such as poverty and unemployment, and mental disorder. Nevertheless, the relationship between economic and psychological distress can scarcely be described as invariant; the extensive literature on social support makes it clear that an individual’s coping resources modify the relationship between negative economic events and mental health. Curiously, researchers on coping and support have not made a sustained effort to identify cultural or structural variables that may further impact the association between economic and social resources and psychological well-being.