Objectives: Visual impairment in older adults may increase risk for depression and suicide. Research suggests that giving support to others may be associated with lower depressive symptoms in older adults, but much of the research has been in non-clinical populations. Furthermore, there is limited research on giving support and suicide risk.Methods: Using a sample of older adults with vision-related diagnoses (N = 101), this study investigated the association between informal support giving (unpaid support given to family, friends, or neighbors) and formal support giving (volunteering) on depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. Linear regressions examined the relation between support giving and depression, and logistic regressions examined the relation between support giving and suicidal ideation.Results: Greater informal support giving was related to lower likelihood of reported suicidal ideation (OR: .82, 95% CI: .68-.99, p = .04), whereas volunteer activity was not significantly related to suicidal ideation. Neither volunteer behavior nor informal support giving was related to depressive symptoms.Conclusions: Providing informal support was associated with lower likelihood of endorsing suicidal ideation in older adults with vision impairment.Clinical Implications: Informal support giving may be a target for decreasing suicidal ideation among older adults with health impairments.
Although all jurisdictions with capital punishment currently have at least one statutory aggravating factor for causing the death of a law-enforcement officer, little is currently known about the fate of these persons. There is a common perception that these individuals would be the most likely to receive a death sentence among those convicted of capital crimes; however, this assumption has not been empirically tested. The purpose of this research was to examine this assumption in the state of North Carolina among the population of offenders convicted of capital murder between the years of 1977 and 2009. Quantitative analysis shows that murdering a law-enforcement officer does not increase the likelihood of a death sentence. Additional qualitative analysis of these cases examines the ultimate fate of these offenders and reveals that the death penalty is reserved for those who either specifically seek out law-enforcement officers, brutalize and degrade them, or kill them in an attempt to avoid arrest or to escape that is either unsuccessful or did not require the murder to succeed in these endeavors. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.
The assumption that homicide is a unidimensional phenomenon has rarely been questioned in empirical research. Using newly available data, this analysis classifies homicide into two types, primary and nonprimary, based on the victim/offender relationship. Two models that have appeared in the literature are replicated, utilizing this classificatory scheme. State primary-homicide rates are found to be related to poverty and to the percentage of the population aged 20-34, while nonprimary homicide rates are significantly related only to the percentage of the state living in urban areas. Replication of the original models demonstrates that the failure to classify homicides in this manner results in the incorrect assessment of the relative size and importance of the various predictors of homicide included in these models.
Sexual violence is a serious public health problem that has been associated with negative mental and physical health outcomes. Few existing studies have examined the prevalence and patterns of adverse mental health among victims of sexual violence using data from nationally representative samples of U.S. adults. The main objectives of this study were to identify patterns in the associations between sexual violence victimization and depression and anxiety (DA) symptoms using data from the sexual violence and DA Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) modules. Stratified multivariate logistic regression models were conducted to test the associations between sexual violence victimization and DA controlling for demographic characteristics. Multiple stratified MANOVA models were used to detect the effect of sexual violence victimization on DA symptoms while controlling for key demographic characteristics. Among all 61,187 participants, more than 5% ( n = 3,240) were victims of sexual violence, out of which 18.82% reported being diagnosed with depression, 8.37% reported an anxiety disorder, and 28.28% reported being diagnosed with DA disorder. Victims of sexual violence reported significantly higher number of days when they had trouble concentrating, sleep difficulties, poor appetite, little interest or pleasure in activities, blamed themselves for personal failure, felt depressed, and had little energy. The present study highlights the importance of collecting nationally representative data from victims of sexual violence and extends previous findings from clinically based studies. This study also serves as an example of an analytic approach that addresses a public health priority area by drawing on data from multiple topic-specific BRFSS modules.
Understanding self‐concealment, the tendency to actively conceal distressing personal information from others, may be important in developing effective ways to help individuals with suicidal ideation. No published study has yet assessed the relation between self‐concealment and suicidal behaviors. Additionally, most self‐concealment research has been conducted solely with younger adults. The relation between self‐concealment and depressive symptoms among older adults (age 65 and older), and between self‐concealment and suicidal behaviors among both younger (college student) and older adults, was investigated in this study. As predicted, self‐concealment was significantly related to suicidal behaviors in younger adults. Furthermore, self‐concealment was significantly related to depressive symptoms in older adults. Interestingly, the association between self‐concealment and suicidal behaviors in this age group was not significant.
Journal Article High Correlations or Multicollinearity, and What to Do About Either: Reply to Light Get access Robert Nash Parker, Robert Nash Parker Rutgers University Address correspondence to Robert Nash Parker, Department of Sociology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar M. Dwayne Smith M. Dwayne Smith Tulane University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Social Forces, Volume 62, Issue 3, March 1984, Pages 804–807, https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/62.3.804 Published: 01 March 1984
This study provides an empirical assessment of theories of rape that suggest that conditions of poverty and inequality account for differences in rates of rape among communities in the United States. To compensate for problems of statistical unreliability, 1980 data for 88 Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSAs) with extremely high or low rates of rape are analyzed. Poverty, but not racial economic inequality, is found to partially account for differences in these communities. However, other demographic factors, most notably the percentage of the community divorced or separated, are found to be even more viable predictors of high rape rates.
