American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 120, No. 4: 592-607
Copyright © 1984 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
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THE PREVALENCE OF DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS AMONG MEXICAN AMERICANS AND ANGLOS
1Department of Mexican American Studies, College of Arts and Letters, San Diego State University San Diego, CA 92182
2Department of Psychiatry, University of Florida Gainesville, FL
3Santa Clara County Mental Health Bureau Santa Clara, CA
Reprint requests to Dr. William Vega
The study reports epidemiologic field survey data on the distribution of depressive symptoms among Angios (n = 637) and two Mexican-American sub- samples (n = 551) living in Santa Clara County, California. One of the Mexican-American subsamples was interviewed in English (n = 330) and the other in Spanish (n = 221). Analysis of variance indicated that those with low educational achievement, females, those in disrupted marital statuses, and those under 30 years of age had significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms than their counterparts. The prevalence of depressive symptoms for the Anglo and Mexican-American Engiish-speaking samples was very similar and much lower than that reported by the Spanish-speaking Mexican-American subsample. Differences in educational levels appear to be accounting for many of the variations in depressive symptoms between the Anglo and English- speaking subsamples and the Spanish-speaking one. The authors suggest that the lack of language skills along with low educational achievement may be indicating a relative lack of acculturation and societal integration which in turn may be accounting for some of the increased symptoms among the Spanish-speaking subsample. The results of multiple stepwise regression analyses indicate that age, sex, marital status, and educational attainment explain relatively low and fluctuating amounts of the total variance. These analyses aiso indicate that social and demographic factors are differentlaily related to de pressive symptoms for each of the subsamples. The variables education, female, and separated were significant in all of the equations, but their order of entrance and the amount of variance explained by them varied.
depressive symptoms; Mexican Americans; socioeconomic factors
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