Depression in African American and White women with low incomes: the role of chronic stress.
The current study examined the links between frequency and severity of acute and chronic stress, on the one hand, and depressive symptoms, on the other hand, in a racially balanced sample of African American and White women with low incomes. We predicted and found that severity of chronic stress accounted for more of the variance in depressive symptoms than did severity of acute stress and that severity of chronic stress amplified the effects of the severity of acute stress on depressive symptoms. Results also showed that African American women tended to have a greater number of depressive symptoms than White women, controlling for income, possibly because they experienced a greater number of chronic stressors than did White women, a condition that rendered them more vulnerable to psychological distress.
Grote
Nancy K
NK
School of Social Work, University of Washington, 4101 15th Avenue NE, 354900, Seattle, WA 98105-6299, USA. ngrote@u.washington.edu
Bledsoe
Sarah E
SE
Wellman
Jill
J
Brown
Charlotte
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D010414:Pennsylvania / Q000453:epidemiology; D011203:Poverty; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People; D055815:Young Adult