Racial differences in the frequency of depressive symptoms among community dwelling elders: the role of socioeconomic factors.

In a biracial sample of community dwelling elders (n=4162, the Duke EPESE), African-Americans endorsed more items than Whites on a standardized depression scale, the CES-D, in unadjusted, cross-sectional analyses. However, indices of socioeconomic status (e.g., education and problems meeting needs) were found to mediate the relationship between race and depression. When these socioeconomic variables were included in cross-sectional analyses, the association between depressive symptoms and race reversed such that Whites were significantly more likely to endorse depressive symptoms than African-Americans. Further, whereas in unadjusted, longitudinal analyses, race was unrelated to changes in depressive symptoms over time, with the inclusion of the socioeconomic variables Whites were found to endorse more depressive symptoms than African-Americans. We conclude that socioeconomic variables influence the size and direction of racial differences in the endorsement of depressive symptoms in community dwelling elders.

Sexuality during pregnancy and the year postpartum.

BACKGROUND: There have been a few studies conducted on couples' sexual behavior during pregnancy and the year postpartum, but those studies contain sampling bias resulting from recruiting volunteers for sex research. The sample for the current research was recruited for a far less sensitive study, and includes data from both mothers and fathers. METHODS: A total of 570 pregnant women and 550 of their husbands or partners were recruited and were interviewed on four occasions: (1) at the fifth month of pregnancy (T1); (2) at 1 month postpartum (T2); (3) at 4 months postpartum (T3); and (4) at 12 months postpartum (T4). RESULTS: Although approximately 90% of couples engaged in sexual intercourse at T1, T3, and T4, only approximately 19% did at T2. On average, couples resumed intercourse at 7 weeks postpartum. At T2 and T3, women who were breastfeeding showed significantly less sexual activity and less sexual satisfaction than women who were not. There were few differences between women who gave birth vaginally and those who were delivered by cesarean section, except that the latter resumed intercourse somewhat earlier. CONCLUSIONS: Practitioners providing family-centered maternity care need to counsel couples about typical patterns of sexuality during pregnancy and postpartum, and about usual patterns during breastfeeding. Accurate information can help couples feel more comfortable during the transition periods before and after childbirth. A discussion of expected changes in sexuality should be routinely introduced by the physician during prenatal care.

Magnitude of psychological gender differences. Another side to the story.

A. H. Eagly (1995) argued that feminism created a political climate that has lead to research that inaccurately minimizes psychological gender differences. In this article, the authors assert that feminist psychologists do not have a uniform position on this issue, and that many have argued for large gender differences. Meta-analyses indicate great variability in the magnitude of gender differences across different behaviors. However, more psychological gender differences (25%) fall in the close-to-zero range than do other effects in psychology (6%).