This study uses longitudinal data to observe how life events, chronic life strains, self concepts, coping, and social supports come together to form a process of stress. It takes involuntary job disruptions as illustrating life events and shows how they adversely affect enduring role strains, economic strains in particular. These exacerbated strains, in turn, erode positive concepts of self, such as self-esteem and mastery. The diminished self-concepts then leave one especially vulnerable to experiencing symptoms of stress, of which depression is of special interest to this analysis. The interventions of coping and social supports are mainly indirect; that is, they do not act directly to buffer depression. Instead, they minimize the elevation of depression by dampening the antecedent process.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2136676.pdf

The stress process.

The authors suggest that the most promising route to effective strategies for the prevention of adolescent alcohol and other drug problems is through a risk-focused approach. This approach requires the identification of risk factors for drug abuse, identification of methods by which risk factors have been effectively addressed, and application of these methods to appropriate high-risk and general population samples in controlled studies. The authors review risk and protective factors for drug abuse, assess a number of approaches for drug abuse prevention potential with high-risk groups, and make recommendations for research and practice.

/pdf/risk-and-protective-factors-for-alcohol-and-other-drug-ubehfds1zo.pdf

Risk and protective factors for alcohol and other drug problems in adolescence and early adulthood: Implications for substance abuse prevention.

This paper presents a general strain theory of crime and delinquency that is capable of overcoming the criticisms of previous strain theories. In the first section, strain theory is distinguished from social control and differential association/social learning theory. In the second section, the three major types of strain are described: (1) strain as the actual or anticipated failure to achieve positively valued goals, (2) strain as the actual or anticipated removal of positively valued stimuli, and (3) strain as the actual or anticipated presentation of negatively valued stimuli. In the third section, guidelines for the measurement of strain are presented. And in the fourth section, the major adaptations to strain are described, and thcwe factors influencing the choice of delinquent versus nondelinquent adaptations are discussed. After dominating deviance research in the 196Os, strain theory came under heavy attack in the 1970s (Bernard, 1984; Cole, 1975), with several prominent researchers suggesting that the theory be abandoned (Hirschi, 1969; Kornhauser, 1978). Strain theory has survived those attacks, but its influence is much diminished (see Agnew, 1985a; Bernard, 1984; Farnworth and Leiber, 1989). In particular, variables derived from strain theory now play a very limited role in explanations of crime/delinquency. Several recent causal models of delinquency, in fact, either entirely exchde strain variables or assign them a small role (e.g., Elliott et al., 1985; Johnson, 1979; Massey and Krohn, 1986; Thornberry, 1987; Tonry et al., 1991). Causal models of crime/delinquency are dominated, instead, by variables derived from differential association/social learning theory and social control theory. This paper argues that strain theory has a central role to play in explanations of crime/delinquency, but that the theory has to be substantially revised to play this role. Most empirical studies of strain theory continue to rely on the strain models developed by Merton (1938), A. Cohen (1955), and Cloward and Ohlin (1960). In recent years, however, a wealth of research in several fields has questioned certain of the assumptions underlying those theories and pointed to new directions for the development of strain theory. Most notable in this area is the research on stress in medical sociology and psychology, on equity/justice in social psychology, and on aggression in psychology-particularly recent versions of frustration-aggression and social

Foundation for a General Strain Theory of Crime and Delinquency

This paper presents a critical overview of current concepts and analytic practices in stress research and considers how they can be changed to make the research more consistent with core sociological interests. An overarching concern of the paper is the analytic use of basic information about people's social and institutional affiliations and statuses. It is important that such information be treated not simply as data that need to be controlled statistically; we must examine the bearing of these data on each domain of the stress process: the exposure to and meaning of stressors, access to stress mediators, and the psychological, physical, and behavioral manifestations of stress. The conceptualization and measurement of stressors should move away from their focus on particular events or chronic strains and should seek instead to observe and assess over time constellations of stressors made up of both events and strains. Moreover, the effects of the mediators--coping and social support--are evaluated most fruitfully in terms of their effects in limiting the number, severity, and diffusion of stressors in these constellations. Finally, sociological stress researchers should not be bound to outcomes that better serve the intellectual interests of those who work with biomedical and epidemiological models of stress, nor should the research be committed exclusively to a single outcome.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2136956.pdf

The sociological study of stress

Family processes affecting the socioemotional functioning of children living in poor families and families experiencing economic decline are reviewed. Black children are of primary interest in the article because they experience disproportionate shares of the burden of poverty and economic loss and are at substantially higher risk than white children of experiencing attendant socioemotional problems. It is argued that (a) poverty and economic loss diminish the capacity for supportive, consistent, and involved parenting and render parents more vulnerable to the debilitating effects of negative life events, (b) a major mediator of the link between economic hardship and parenting behavior is psychological distress deriving from an excess of negative life events, undesirable chronic conditions, and the absence and disruption of marital bonds, (c) economic hardship adversely affects children's socioemotional functioning in part through its impact on the parent's behavior toward the child, and (d) father-child relations under conditions of economic hardship depend on the quality of relations between the mother and father. The extent to which psychological distress is a source of race differences in parenting behavior is considered. Finally, attention is given to the mechanisms by which parents' social networks reduce emotional strain, lessen the tendency toward punitive, coercive, and inconsistent parenting behavior, and, in turn, foster positive socioemotional development in economically deprived children.

The Impact of Economic Hardship on Black Families and Children: Psychological Distress, Parenting, and Socioemotional Development

The hypothesis, suggested by associations found in previous research, that stressful gife events play a direct etiological role in psychological disorders was investigated. Preexistent methodological problems which permitted no clear inference regarding this role were treated. Competing hypotheses which posited that the life event-psychological disorder associations represented confounded relationships among events, pathology, and sociocultural factors were examined and controlled. Data used were from a survey of mothers of 732 children ranging in age from 11 to 23 years old, who constituted the follow-up sample collectedfive years laterfrom an original sample of 1,034 children randomly selected from a cross-section of Manhattan households. Event scores differing as to the change and undesirability stress conceptions, each objectively and subjectively defined, were studied. No significant differences were found between correlations of event scores with behavioral pathology prior to and after the events. Multiple regression analyses which added event scores after controlling for stressful life processes demonstrated that events made no minimally meaningful contribution to the prediction of any disturbed behavior. The confounding hypothesis rather than the etiological hypothesis was supported and discussed.

/pdf/an-evaluation-of-the-etiologic-role-of-stressful-life-change-2spyh2joee.pdf

An evaluation of the etiologic role of stressful life-change events in psychological disorders.

Evaluated the effects of a theoretically derived program to prevent mental health problems in children who had experienced the death of a parent. The program was designed to improve variables in the family environment which were specified as mediators of the effects of parental death on child mental health. The evaluation design involved the random assignment of families to either an intervention or control group. The program led to parental ratings of increased warmth in their relationships with their children, increased satisfaction with their social support, and the maintenance of family discussion of grief-related issues. The program also led to parent ratings of decreased conduct disorder and depression problems and overall problems in older children. Significant correlations between the family environment variables and child mental health problems provided further empirical support for the theory underlying the program. Implications for program redesign were derived by reconsidering the adequacy of the program components to change theoretically mediating variables.

Linking empirically based theory and evaluation: the Family Bereavement Program.

This study examines social, familial and child behavior antecedents of adolescent illicit drug use. The sample studied is a subsample of a follow-up sample of Manhattan children, whose mothers were...

Early Precursors and Concurrent Correlates of Patterns of Illicit Drug Use in Adolescence

Describes a generative study of processes which may lead to symptomatology in children who have experienced the death of a parent. Based on existing literature, four putative mediating variables were identified: parental demoralization, family warmth, negative family events, and positive stable family events. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to compare several potential causal models involving these variables. The results were most consistent with a model in which bereavement was not directly related to the child symptomatology, but rather its effects were transmitted through these four mediational mechanisms. The implications of the results of the structural modeling for the design and evaluation of preventive interventions are discussed briefly.

Joanne C. Gersten

Papers

An evaluation of the etiologic role of stressful life-change events in psychological disorders.

Linking empirically based theory and evaluation: the Family Bereavement Program.

Early Precursors and Concurrent Correlates of Patterns of Illicit Drug Use in Adolescence

The use of structural equation modeling in generative research: toward the design of a preventive intervention for bereaved children.

Treatment of psychological disorders among urban children.