The link of social support and postpartum depressive symptoms in African-American women with low incomes.

PURPOSE: To describe the relationship between postpartum support and depressive symptoms in a sample of African-American women of low socioeconomic status. DESIGN: Descriptive correlational design using a convenience sample. METHOD: Fifty-seven African-American women at 4 to 6 weeks' postpartum were interviewed as they waited for their infant to receive a well-baby exam. Identification of amount and type of postpartum support received, as well as the importance of each type of support was measured using the Postpartum Support Questionnaire. Depressive symptoms were measured using the CES-D depression instrument. RESULTS: There was a high incidence of symptoms of depression, and depressive symptoms were associated with support being very important to the woman. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Importance of support is a better predictor of outcomes than how much support a woman receives. Communication of need for support and establishing boundaries with family members are recommended.

An intervention to increase use and effectiveness of self-care measures for breast cancer chemotherapy patients.

Outpatient chemotherapy treatment shifts the managing of side effects from health care providers to patients and families. The primary purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to determine whether women who receive an intervention of three telephone calls and oral and written self-care measures for specific side effects will use more self-care measures and have higher effectiveness scores as measured by the Exercise of Self-Care Questionnaire (ESCQ) after treatment 4 than women who receive standard care. A second purpose was to determine if women scoring higher on the Exercise of Self-Care Agency (ESCA) Scale before chemotherapy used more and effective self-care measures during chemotherapy than women scoring lower on this scale. Forty-eight women beginning chemotherapy for breast cancer completed the ESCA pretreatment and were interviewed using the ESCQ during a sequence of therapy. The experimental group (n = 26) received additional self-care measures. Subjects with higher ESCA scores before chemotherapy treatment used more self-care measures to alleviate chemotherapy side effects. A telephone call and written self-care measures after the second, third, and fourth chemotherapy treatments did not increase use or effectiveness of self-care measures. The implications of assessing patients' self-care agency before chemotherapy are discussed and a nursing intervention recommended.

Social support and adjustment in women following coronary artery bypass surgery.

Social support expected, discrepancies in support (differences between support expected and received), and self-esteem were used to predict emotional (tension and depression) and functional outcomes (recreation, housework, and social life) in a sample of women who had coronary artery bypass surgery (N = 86). Women were interviewed before hospital discharge (T1) and 1 (T2) and 3 (T3) months later. Higher self-esteem was associated with lower depression and tension (T3) and less disruption in social interaction (T2 and T3) and recreation (T3). Results suggest that social support may influence outcomes through enhancement of self-esteem. Directions for further study are given.

Life satisfaction and age concentration of the local area.

Data from a community sample of persons 60 years old and older were analyzed to determine if the concentration of older persons in the local area (operationally defined as census tracts) was related to the respondent's life satisfaction after controlling for the known effects of physical health, socio-economic status, social participation, and other microlevel variables. Results showed that the effect of age concentration is negative, but that this effect differs according to the frequency with which a respondent visits a close friend who lives outside the neighborhood and the number of voluntary associations to which the respondent belongs. The more frequently respondents visited outside the neighborhood, the greater the negative effect of age concentration. On the other hand, the more voluntary association memberships respondents had, the smaller the negative effect of age concentration.

Socioeconomic comparisons and life satisfaction of elderly adults.

The hypothesis that overall satisfaction with life is influenced by one's financial situation vis-a-vis significant others was tested. Respondents compared themselves financially to the relative, friend, and neighbor to whom they felt closest. Data from a 1980 community survey of persons 60 years of age and older showed that the better off financially respondents perceived themselves to be compared with the relative to whom they felt closest, the greater the life satisfaction. This effect was independent of functional health, age, sex, race, marital status, education, income, household size, and social participation. These findings suggest that life satisfaction reflects not only one's location in the broader stratification system but also one's location in a rather limited network of significant others.

Homogeneity of friendship networks of elderly blacks and whites.

Race and sex were found to be the most salient parameters of friendship. Multivariate analyses revealed that blacks tend to have less homogeneous friendship networks than their white counterparts only in regard to marital status. How close respondents felt to their friends, on the average, was positively related to the level of age and sex homogeneity of the network. Respondent's education was positively related to all five types of homogeneity. It was found that the size theorem from Blau's primitive theory of social structure accounted for some of the findings. Exceptions were in race and education homogeneity, where discrimination and social distance figured into possible explanations.

Determinants of life satisfaction: a note on a race-interaction hypothesis.

A "race interaction" hypothesis would suggest that factors important to the life satisfaction of whites may not be important to the life satisfaction of blacks. In this paper we suggest that dummy variable regression with interaction terms allows an assessment of differential effects by race. Using data from 438 white and 219 black elderly respondents, it is shown that most factors influencing life satisfaction of elderly people have similar effects among blacks and whites. Although greater numbers of impairments lead to lower life satisfaction for both races, the negative effect is considerably stronger among black than among white respondents.

Repeat admissions for perceived problem drinking. A social resources perspective.

Several propositions derived from a social resources perspective regarding differences in first and repeat admissions are examined using data taken from persons being treated for alcohol misuse and from persons not receiving treatment. Although objective behavior (drinking level) is very important as a predictor of first admissions, it is of less consequence in predicting repeat admissions. The data indicate a complex pattern of interaction effects among social resources and between them and drinking behavior in determining who comes to receive treatment and who is readmitted to treatment.