Stress and Adaptation in the Context of Culture: Depression in a Southern Black Community

This book provides a unique study in social and cultural psychiatry, carried out in an African-American community in the rural South. Using a combination of concepts and methods from anthropology and social epidemiology, the specific social and psychological risk factors for depression are examined. The author places special emphasis on how that risk is modified by the social and historical context of the Black community in the United States, and suggests a new basis for the sociocultural comparative study of health and disease.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction 1. Studies of Stress and Disease The Stress Process Social Class and Mental Disorder Life Events Chronic Social Stressors Resistance Resources Social Support Personal Coping Resources Integrative Studies Research in the Stress Process: A Critique Modernization and the Stress Process Goals of the Present Study Summary 2. Theoretical Orientations in the Study of African-American Culture Early Studies of the Black Community The Pathology Perspective Responses to the Pathology Perspective Critique Research on Health in the Black Community Summary 3. Methods and the Measurement of Depressive Symptoms Community Rapport Qualitative Research Methods Quantitative Research Operations Sampling The Dependent Variable: Depressive Symptoms Depressive Epidemiology Summary 4. The Community Economic Dimensions of the Community Occupational Class Employment Education Style of Life Income Predictors of Economic Position Household and Family Organization Household Structure Family Organization A Multivariate analysis of Household Structure The Church and Community Organization The Church Voluntary Associations and Community Resources The Civil Rights Movement Perceptions of Inequality The Civil Rights Movement Discussion Social Class Household, Family, and Patterns of Help-seeking Models of Racism Intra-cultural Diversity and the Black Community 5. Stressors and the Risk of Depression Lifestyle Incongruity and Depression Stressful Life Events and Depression Unemployment and Depression Economic Stressors and Depression Social Role Stressors and Depression The Patterning of Stressors by Class and Generation Discussion 6. Resistance Resouces Resistance Resources in the Black Community Social Support Cultural Resources Specifying the Effects of Resistance Resources Context-specific Models of Buffering Effects The Younger, Lower Economic Class Group The Younger, Higher Economic Class Group The Older, Lower Economic Class Group The Older, Higher Economic Class Group Discussion 7. Case Studies Case Study One Case Study Two Case Study Three Case Study Four Case Study Five Case Study Six Case Study Seven Case Study Eight Discussion 8. Conclusions and Implications Appendix I: Interview Guide for Ethnographic Research Appendix II: Survey Interview Schedule Appendix III: Regression Diagnostics and Alternative Techniques of Model Estimation (with Carolyn J. Bailey) Appendix IV: Correlation matrices References Index