Toward an interpretation of items used in field studies of mental illness

Abstract

Data from 1003 rural, Illinois heads of households are used toward three ends: (1) giving a plausible interpretation to items previously used in field studies of mental illness; (2) describing the level of two symptom types among subgroups in a rural population; (3) considering the importance of status variables and physiological malaise as factors in producing psychological stress. The interpretation given previously used “mental illness” items is that they measure psychological stress and physiological malaise. Both status and physiological variables are important for predicting psychological stress in individuals.