Natural disaster and depression: a prospective investigation of reactions to the 1993 midwest floods.

A statewide sample of 1735 Iowa residents, approximately half of whom were victims of the 1993 Midwest Floods, participated in interviews 1 year prior to, and 30 to 90 days after, the disaster. Employing a rigorous methodology including both control-group comparisons and predisaster assessments, we performed a systematic evaluation of the disaster's impact. Overall, the disaster led to true but small rises in depressive symptoms and diagnoses 60-90 days postflood. The disaster-psychopathology effect was not moderated by predisaster depressive symptoms or diagnostically defined depression; rather, predisaster symptoms and diagnoses uniquely contributed to increases in postdisaster distress. However, increases in symptoms as a function of flood impact were slightly greater among respondents with the lowest incomes and among residents living in small rural communities, as opposed to on farms or in cities. Implications for individual- and community-level disaster response are discussed.

Depression and control beliefs in relation to reemployment: what are the directions of effect?

Depressive symptoms, locus of control, and reemployment were assessed over the course of 1 year among 254 recently unemployed men and women. Individual growth curve modeling and discrete-time survival analyses were used to examine (a) whether reemployment resolved depressive symptoms or affected control beliefs, (b) whether depressive symptoms or control beliefs predicted time to reemployment, and (c) if these relationships changed over time. Depressive symptom declines were predicted by reemployment, but initial depression was completely unrelated to time to reemployment. Control beliefs were stable over time and thus not affected by reemployment. Instead, they predicted early reemployment. These processes varied according to reemployment type and time period. Implications for intervention and for stress and coping theory are discussed.