Factors Predicting Depressed Mood among Victims of Stressful Life Event: The Case of Spouses of Incarcerated Males in Ibadan, Nigeria
Keywords:
Depressed mood, Coping strategies, Social support, Perceived social stigma, Emotional needsAbstract
The occurrence of major life events such as incarceration of a partner signals a period of increased risk of depressed mood and when supportive interventions are lacking it may result from evolution of distress to disorder. This study examined factors predicting depressed mood among female partners of prisoners in Ibadan, Nigeria. A total of 109 female partners of inmates in Ibadan who were selected through purposive sampling techniques participated in the study. The ages of the participants ranged between 20 years to 65years with mean age of 39.47years and standard deviation of 10.03 years. Data collection was through the use of questionnaires. Multiple regressions were used to test the hypothesis. Findings indicate that coping strategies (problem focused and emotion focused), social support, perceived social stigma and emotional needs significantly jointly predicted depressed mood with (R2 = .47, F = (5,103) = 18.92; P <.001). This implies that emphasis should be placed on coping strategies, social support, perceived social stigma and emotional needs as the factors mediating depressed mood among female partners of inmates in this study. However, it was suggested that effective coping mechanism should be adopted in order to handle circumstances that are responsible for expression of depressed mood as this enhance or improve the mental and psychological status of the spouses of incarcerated males and possibly change their perception about depression encountered as a result of the stressful life event.
References
Oatley, K., Keltner, D. & Jenkins, J. M. (2006b). "Emotions and mental health in childhood: Understanding emotions (2nded.) Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing.
Monroe, S. M. & Simons, A. D. (1991). "Diathesis-stress theories in the context of life stress research: Implications fordepressive disorders. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 406-425.doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.110.3.406
Schmidt, P (2005). "Mood, Depression, and Reproductive Hormones in the Menopausal Transition". The American Journal of Medicine. 118 Suppl 12B (12): 54–8.doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2005.09.033.
Rashid, T. & Heider, I. (2008). "Life Events and Depression". Annals of Punjab Medical College2 (1). Retrieved 15 October 2012.
Salmans, S (1997). Depression: Questions You Have – Answers You Need. People's Medical Society.
Grinstead, O., Faigeles, B., Bancroft, C., & Zack, B. (2001). The financial cost of maintaining relationship with incarcerated African American men: A survey of women prison visitors. Journal of African American Men, 6(1),60 – 70.Tia
Balogun,S.K. (1993). A documentation on psychological wellbeing of early married females and VVF victims in Nigeria Research report submitted to Inter- African committee onTraditional Practice Affecting Mother and Child Health.
Balogun,S.K. (1994).The buffering effect of social support on personality disposition of victims of a stressful life event: The case of VVF victims. Ife Psychologia: An internationalJournal, 2(2), 136-151.
Lin, N., Ensel, W.M., Simeone, R.S., and Kiro, W. (1979). Social support, Stressful life events and illness; a model and an empirical test. Journal of Health and social Behaviour, 20, 108-119.
Solar, O, & Irwin, A. (2010) A conceptual framework for action on the social determinants ofhealth.Social Determinants of Health Discussion Paper 3 (Policy and Practice)Geneva: World Health Organization.
Ye, X.Q, Chen, W.Q, Lin, J.X, Wang, R.P, Zhang ZH, Yang X, et al. (2008) Effect of social support on psychological- stress-induced anxiety and depressive symptoms in patients receiving peritoneal dialysis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 65(2),157-64.
Landman-Peeters, K.M,, Hartman, C.A,, van der Pompe, G, den Boer, J.A, Minderaa, R.B,&Ormel J. (2005)Gender differences in the relation between social support, problems in parent-offspring communication, and depression and anxiety. Social Science andMedicine. 60(11), 2549-2559.
Claerhout, S, Elder, J & Janes, C. (1982) Problem-solving skills for rural battered women. American Journal of Community Psychology, 10, 605 – 612.
Launius, M.H. &Jensen, B.L. (1987) Inter-personal problem-solving skills in battere , counseling and control women. Journal of Family Violence, 2(2), 151 – 162.
Cantos,A.L., Neidig, P.H. & O’Leary, K.D. (1993)Men’s and women’s attributions of blame for domestic violence. Journal of Family Violence, 8(4), 289 - 302
Miller, D.T. & Porter, C.A. (1983) Selfblame in victims of violence. Journal of Social Issues, 39, 139 – 152
Overholser, J.C & Moll, S.H. (1990) Who is to blame: Attributions regarding causality in spouse abuse. Behavioural Sciences and the Law, 8(2), 107 – 120.
Balogun,S.K. (1998). Coping Strategy as Mediatory Influence on Psychopatology Level Among VVF and Non VVF victims: Evidence from a Nigeria City Sample. TheExceptionalChild. Vol 2(2), 106- 109
Lazarus, R. S. & Folkman, S. (1984) . Coping and adaptation. In W. D. Gentry (ed) the handbook of behavioural medicine, New York: Guildford. Pp 282-325 .
Pearlin, L,I. & Schooler, C. (1978). The structure of coping .Journal of Health and Social Behaviour,2 19-21
Goffman E. (1963) Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Stafford, M.C, & Scott, R.R. (1986) Stigma deviance and social control: Some conceptual issues. In: Ainlay SC, Becker G, Coleman LM, (eds.). The Dilemma of Difference. New York: Plenum;pp. 77–91.
Gilmore N, & Somerville M.A. (1994) Stigmatization, scapegoating, and discrimination in sexually transmitted diseases, overcoming “them†and “us†Social Science andMedicine, 39, 1339–1358.
Jacoby, A. (1994) Felt versus enacted stigma, a concept revisited. Social Science and Medicine., 38, 269–274.
Scombler, G, & Hopkins A. (1986) Being epileptic, coming to terms with stigma. Sociology ofHealth and Illness. 8, 26 -43.
Link, B.G, & Phelan, J.C. (2001)On stigma and its public health implications. Background paper for the “Stigma and Global Health: Developing a research agenda: Aninternational Conferenceâ€. Bethesda, MD: NIH;Sep 5–7.
Mays, V.M. & Cochran, S.D. (2001) Mental health correlates of perceived discrimination among lesbian, gay and bisexual adults in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 91(11), 1869 - 1879
Krieger, N. (1999) Embodying inequality: a review of concepts, measures and methods for studying health consequences of discrimination. International Journal of Health Services, 29, 295–352.
Ren, X.S, Amick B, & Williams, D.R. (1999) Racial/ethnic disparities in health: the interplay between discrimination and socioeconomic status. Ethnicity and Health. 9(2), 151–165.
Williams, D.R, Yu, Y, Jackson, J.S, & Anderson, N.B. (1997)Racial differences in physical and mental health:
Socioeconomic status, stress, and discrimination. Journal of Health Psychology. 2, 335–351.
Dion K.L, Dion K.K, & Pak, A.W.P. (1992). Personality –based hardiness as a buffer for discrimination-related stress inmembers of Toronto’s Chinese community. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science. 24(4), 517–536.
Thompson, V.L. (1996) Perceived experiences of racism as stressful life events. Community Mental Health. 32(3), 223–233.
Al-Issa I. (197). The psychology of prejudice and discrimination. In: Al-Issa I and Tousignant M, (eds) Ethnicity,immigration, and psychopathology. NY: Plenum Press; 1997. pp. 17 – 32.
Kessler, R.C, Mickelson, K.D, & Zhao, S. (197) Patterns and correlates of self-help group membership in the United States. Social Policy. 27, 27–46.
Fishman, S.H. (1981) "Losing a Loved One to Incarceration: The Effect of Imprisonment on Family Members, Personneland Guidance Journal 59: 372, 373.
Hairston, J. (2002). Prisoners and families: parenting issues during incarceration. Paperpresented at “The From Prison toHome Conferenceâ€, Washington.
Golgberg, D. P.(1988) The users’ guide to the general health Questionnaire. Slough: NFER, Nelson.
Revicki, D. A., Leidy, N. K., & Howland, L. (1996). Evaluating the psychometric characteristics of the psychological General wellbeing index with a new response scale. Quality of Life Research, 5, 419-425.
Bada, B. V. (2012). Social support, perceived social stigmatization, coping strategies and emotional needs as predictor of psychological well-being among female partners of prisoners in Ibadan and the effectiveness of psycho-education. Anunpublished PhD proposal submitted to the Department of Psychology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
Zimet, G. D., Dahlem, N. W., Zimet, S. G. & Farley, G. K. (1988). The multidimensional scale of perceived social support. Journal of Personality Assessment,52, 30-41.
Carver, C.S., Scheir, M.F., & Weintraub, J.K. (1989) Assessing coping strategies: A theoretical based approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56(2), 267 -283
Ben-Zur, H. (2005) Coping, distress and life events in a community sample. International Journal of Stress Management, 12, 188 – 196
Harley, W.F. (1986). Emotional needs questionnaire. Minnesota: The Marriage Builders
Berkman LF. (195) The role of social relations in health promotion. PsychosomaticMedicine, 57(3), 245-254.
Glynn L.M, Christenfeld N, & Gerin W. (1999) Gender, social support, and cardiovascular responses to stress.
Psychosomatic Medicine. 61(2), 234- 242.
Seeman, T.E. (1996) Social ties and health: the benefits of social integration. Annals ofEpidemiology, 6(5), 442- 451.
Schalock, R.L (2004) The concept of quality of life: what we know and do not know. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research,48(3), 203 - 216
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
- Papers must be submitted on the understanding that they have not been published elsewhere (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, or thesis) and are not currently under consideration by another journal published by any other publisher.
- It is also the authors responsibility to ensure that the articles emanating from a particular source are submitted with the necessary approval.
- The authors warrant that the paper is original and that he/she is the author of the paper, except for material that is clearly identified as to its original source, with permission notices from the copyright owners where required.
- The authors ensure that all the references carefully and they are accurate in the text as well as in the list of references (and vice versa).
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
- The journal/publisher is not responsible for subsequent uses of the work. It is the author's responsibility to bring an infringement action if so desired by the author.
