Economic, Life, and Symptom Changes in a Nonmetropolitan Community

Abstract

Previous research in a metropolitan community found significant time-series associations of monthly unemployment rate with surveyed depressed mood (Catalano and Dooley, 1977), of absolute change in employment in the basic economic sector with surveyed life events (Catalano and Dooley, 1979), and of several economic indicators with surveyed psychophysiological symptoms for low-income respondents (Dooley and Catalano, 1979). This study, using similar data from a longitudinal survey in a nonmetropolitan community, fails to replicate any of the previous findings. This failure to replicate is discussed in terms of differences between the metropolitan (Kansas City, Missouri) and nonmetropolitan (Washington County, Maryland) communities. Compared with the Kansas City respondents, Washington County respondents reported fewer life events and fewer psychological symptoms, claimed more satisfaction with their sources of social support, and had higher scores on items indicating a disposition to answer in a socially desirable direction.