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Economic Stress, Social Support, and Maternal Depression: Is Social Support Deterioration Occurring?
Christopher D. Gjesfjeld, Catherine G. Greeno, Kevin H. Kim, and Carol M. Anderson
Maternal depression is a mental health problem that can negatively affect mothers and their children. The social support deterioration model suggests that chronic stressors can exert effects on psychological well-being directly and indirectly when stressors undermine social support. This article examines the effects of economic stress and social support on maternal depressive symptoms in a sample of 336 low-income mothers with children receiving mental health treatment.
The Role of Social Relationships in Predicting Loneliness: The National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project
Sharon Shiovitz-Ezra and Sara A. Leitsch
This study examines the association between objective and subjective social network characteristics and their importance in predicting loneliness among a nationally representative sample of older adults. Findings indicate that objective indicators—that is, number of friends and relatives and frequency of contact with social network members—were inversely associated with loneliness and that the strongest predictors of loneliness came from subjective appraisals of the social network—that is, perceived support and strain from spouse, friends, and family. Implications of the findings for social work are discussed.
Analyzing the Relationship Between Poverty and Child Maltreatment: Investigating the Relative Performance of Four Levels of Geographic Aggregation
Sarah B. Aron, Jean McCrowell, Alyson Moon, Ryoichi Yamano, Duston A. Roark, Monica Simmons, Zurab Tatanashvili, and Brett Drake
In this article, county, zip code, tract, and block group levels of aggregation are analyzed to determine which show the strongest effects in modeling the correlation between poverty and child maltreatment report rates. The article presents data to help academic and agency researchers answer the question of which levels of aggregation to use for different purposes.
