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Vulnerability factors and depressive symptoms among hospitalized women
Author(s) -
Caserta Michael S.,
Lund Dale A.,
Gray Robert M.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6629(198704)15:2<216::aid-jcop2290150211>3.0.co;2-0
Subject(s) - interpersonal relationship , depression (economics) , psychological intervention , anxiety , psychology , vulnerability (computing) , marital status , depressive symptoms , interpersonal communication , psychiatry , clinical psychology , medicine , population , social psychology , computer security , computer science , environmental health , economics , macroeconomics
Previous research has demonstrated that symptoms of depression and anxiety can impede the recovery process of hospitalized medical patients. The purpose of this study was to identify those hospitalized patients who were more likely to be predisposed to these symptoms. Using a sample of 109 hospitalized women, the following hypothesis was tested: Depressive symptoms will be more prevalent among those who (a) had experienced the loss of their mother at 17 years of age or younger, (b) have been experiencing low marital companionship, or (c) have three or more children 17 years of age or younger at home. A contingency analysis revealed a significant relationship between early loss of mother and the development of depressive symptoms. Although marital companionship failed to differentiate between depressive symptom levels, a two‐way analysis of variance yielded a significant inverse relationship between marital companionship and depression in general. The number of children at home was not a significant predictor, either as a main effect or interactively with marital companionship. Implications for interventions are discussed.