IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v60y2005i1p49-60.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Women's status and depressive symptoms: A multilevel analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Chen, Ying-Yeh
  • Subramanian, S. V.
  • Acevedo-Garcia, Doloros
  • Kawachi, Ichiro

Abstract

The effects of state-level women's status and autonomy on individual-level women's depressive symptoms were examined. We conducted a multi-level analysis of the 1991 longitudinal follow up of the 1988 National Maternal Infant Health Survey (NMIHS), with 7789 women nested within the fifty American states. State-level women's status was assessed by four composite indices measuring women's political participation, economic autonomy, employment & earnings, and reproductive rights. The main outcome measure was symptoms of depression (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, CES-D). The participants were a nationally representative stratified random sample of women in the USA aged between 17 and 40 years old who gave birth to live babies in 1988, were successfully contacted again in 1991 and provided complete information on depressive symptoms. Women who were younger, non-white, not currently married, less educated or had lower household income tended to report higher levels of depressive symptoms. Compared with states ranking low on the employment & earnings index, women residing in states that were high on the same index scored 0.85 points lower on the CES-D (p

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Ying-Yeh & Subramanian, S. V. & Acevedo-Garcia, Doloros & Kawachi, Ichiro, 2005. "Women's status and depressive symptoms: A multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 49-60, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:60:y:2005:i:1:p:49-60
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(04)00211-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kawachi, Ichiro & Kennedy, Bruce P. & Gupta, Vanita & Prothrow-Stith, Deborah, 1999. "Women's status and the health of women and men: a view from the States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 21-32, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. García-Calvente, Mar & Marcos-Marcos, Jorge & del Río-Lozano, María & Hidalgo-Ruzzante, Natalia & Maroto-Navarro, Gracia, 2012. "Embedded gender and social changes underpinning inequalities in health: An ethnographic insight into a local Spanish context," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2225-2232.
    2. Roberts, Sarah C.M., 2012. "Macro-level gender equality and alcohol consumption: A multi-level analysis across U.S. States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 60-68.
    3. Backhans, Mona Christina & Burström, Bo & Lindholm, Lars & Månsdotter, Anna, 2009. "Pioneers and laggards - Is the effect of gender equality on health dependent on context?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(8), pages 1388-1395, April.
    4. Homan, Patricia, 2017. "Political gender inequality and infant mortality in the United States, 1990–2012," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 127-135.
    5. Dahlin, Johanna & Härkönen, Juho, 2013. "Cross-national differences in the gender gap in subjective health in Europe: Does country-level gender equality matter?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 24-28.
    6. Bracke, Piet & Delaruelle, Katrijn & Dereuddre, Rozemarijn & Van de Velde, Sarah, 2020. "Depression in women and men, cumulative disadvantage and gender inequality in 29 European countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    7. Mullany, Britta C. & Hindin, Michelle J. & Becker, Stan, 2005. "Can women's autonomy impede male involvement in pregnancy health in Katmandu, Nepal?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(9), pages 1993-2006, November.
    8. Propper, Carol & Jones, Kelvyn & Bolster, Anne & Burgess, Simon & Johnston, Ron & Sarker, Rebecca, 2005. "Local neighbourhood and mental health: Evidence from the UK," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(10), pages 2065-2083, November.
    9. Gueltzow, Maria & Bijlsma, Maarten J. & van Lenthe, Frank J. & Myrskylä, Mikko, 2023. "The role of labor market inequalities in explaining the gender gap in depression risk among older US adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 332(C).
    10. Blight, Karin Johansson & Ekblad, Solvig & Persson, Jan-Olov & Ekberg, Jan, 2006. "Mental health, employment and gender. Cross-sectional evidence in a sample of refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina living in two Swedish regions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(7), pages 1697-1709, April.
    11. McKetta, Sarah & Prins, Seth J. & Hasin, Deborah & Patrick, Megan E. & Keyes, Katherine M., 2022. "Structural sexism and Women's alcohol use in the United States, 1988–2016," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    12. Beccia, Ariel L. & Austin, S. Bryn & Baek, Jonggyu & Agénor, Madina & Forrester, Sarah & Ding, Eric Y. & Jesdale, William M. & Lapane, Kate L., 2022. "Cumulative exposure to state-level structural sexism and risk of disordered eating: Results from a 20-year prospective cohort study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nobles, Jenna & Brown, Ryan & Catalano, Ralph, 2010. "National independence, women's political participation, and life expectancy in Norway," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(9), pages 1350-1357, May.
    2. Jolidon, Vladimir, 2022. "Gender inequality and mammography screening: Does living with a partner improve women's mammography uptake?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    3. Mansdotter, Anna & Lindholm, Lars & Ohman, Ann, 2004. "Women, men and public health--how the choice of normative theory affects resource allocation," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 351-364, September.
    4. Ledesma-Cuenca, Ana & Montañés, Antonio & Simón-Fernández, María Blanca, 2022. "Disparities in premature mortality: Evidence for the OECD countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    5. Sundquist, Jan & Johansson, Sven-Erik & Yang, Min & Sundquist, Kristina, 2006. "Low linking social capital as a predictor of coronary heart disease in Sweden: A cohort study of 2.8 million people," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(4), pages 954-963, February.
    6. Ly Phan, 2016. "Measuring Women’s Empowerment at Household Level Using DHS Data of Four Southeast Asian Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 126(1), pages 359-378, March.
    7. Takahashi, Shuko & Jang, Soong-nang & Kino, Shiho & Kawachi, Ichiro, 2020. "Gender inequalities in poor self-rated health: Cross-national comparison of South Korea and Japan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 252(C).
    8. Roberts, Sarah C.M., 2012. "Macro-level gender equality and alcohol consumption: A multi-level analysis across U.S. States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 60-68.
    9. Jeroen Spijker & Frans van Poppel & Leo van Wissen, 2007. "Explaining new trends in the gender gap of mortality: Insights from a regional trend- analysis of the Netherlands," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 5(1), pages 61-92.
    10. Beccia, Ariel L. & Austin, S. Bryn & Baek, Jonggyu & Agénor, Madina & Forrester, Sarah & Ding, Eric Y. & Jesdale, William M. & Lapane, Kate L., 2022. "Cumulative exposure to state-level structural sexism and risk of disordered eating: Results from a 20-year prospective cohort study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    11. Dahlin, Johanna & Härkönen, Juho, 2013. "Cross-national differences in the gender gap in subjective health in Europe: Does country-level gender equality matter?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 24-28.
    12. Ross Macmillan & Naila Shofia & Wendy Sigle, 2018. "Gender and the Politics of Death: Female Representation, Political and Developmental Context, and Population Health in a Cross-National Panel," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(5), pages 1905-1934, October.
    13. Backhans, Mona C. & Lundberg, Michael & Månsdotter, Anna, 2007. "Does increased gender equality lead to a convergence of health outcomes for men and women? A study of Swedish municipalities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(9), pages 1892-1903, May.
    14. Torsheim, Torbjørn & Ravens-Sieberer, Ulrike & Hetland, Jorn & Välimaa, Raili & Danielson, Mia & Overpeck, Mary, 2006. "Cross-national variation of gender differences in adolescent subjective health in Europe and North America," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(4), pages 815-827, February.
    15. Asiskovitch, Sharon, 2010. "Gender and health outcomes: The impact of healthcare systems and their financing on life expectancies of women and men," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(6), pages 886-895, March.
    16. Lapniewska, Zofi, 2014. "Well-being and social development in the context of gender equality," 2014 Papers pla730, Job Market Papers.
    17. Lohan, Maria, 2007. "How might we understand men's health better? Integrating explanations from critical studies on men and inequalities in health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 493-504, August.
    18. Koenen, Karestan C. & Lincoln, Alisa & Appleton, Allison, 2006. "Women's status and child well-being: A state-level analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(12), pages 2999-3012, December.
    19. Backhans, Mona Christina & Burström, Bo & Lindholm, Lars & Månsdotter, Anna, 2009. "Pioneers and laggards - Is the effect of gender equality on health dependent on context?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(8), pages 1388-1395, April.
    20. Wisdom, Jennifer P. & Berlin, Michelle & Lapidus, Jodi A., 2005. "Relating health policy to women's health outcomes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(8), pages 1776-1784, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:60:y:2005:i:1:p:49-60. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.