A multilevel analysis of the relationship between neighborhood social disorder and depressive symptoms: Evidence from the South African National Income Dynamics Study.

A multilevel analysis of the relationship between neighborhood social disorder and depressive symptoms: Evidence from the South African National Income Dynamics Study. Am J Orthopsychiatry. 2015 Jan;85(1):56-62 Authors: Tomita A, Labys CA, Burns JK Abstract The apartheid regime that governed South Africa from 1948-1994 established spatial segregation that is understood to have contributed to the magnitude of neighborhood social disorder in the postapartheid era. Although a number of neighborhood social disorder characteristics, such as perceived violence and crime in the community, are prominent issues in South Africa, the extent to which these perceived spatial attributes are linked to depression is unknown at the population level. Multilevel modeling of data from the second wave of the South African National Income Dynamics Study (SA-NIDS) was utilized to examine the relationship between depressive symptomatology and neighborhood social disorder as indicated by the perceived frequency of violent, criminal and illicit activities in the community. Depressive symptomatology was assessed using the 10-item version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. A cut-off score of 10 or higher was used to indicate the presence of significant depressive symptomatology. Results showed that perception of neighborhood social disorder was independently associated with significant levels of depressive symptomatology. Gender, race or ...
Source: The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Am J Orthopsychiatry Source Type: research