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Biomedical subjects

D Umberson

Publications and source records attributed to D Umberson.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

How women experience menopause: the importance of social context.

This study analyzes personal accounts of women's menopausal experiences to understand why most women view menopause as an insignificant event, despite negative cultural and medical constructions of menopause as a time of "loss." We analyze 16 in-depth interviews with a diverse sample of women to examine how social contexts affect women's experiences with menopause and the meaning of those experiences. We find that most women view menopause as inconsequential because other events of midlife are more important or stressful to them. However, when cultural and medical contexts are examined, we find that some women do not avoid others' negative constructions of menopause as a time of "loss."

Black or African American↗
PubMed1992

Gender, marital status and the social control of health behavior.

Mortality rates are lower for married individuals than they are for unmarried individuals, and marriage seems to be even more beneficial to men than women in this regard. A theoretical model of social integration and social control is developed to explain why this may occur. Drawing from this model, I hypothesize that marriage may be beneficial to health because many spouses monitor and attempt to control their spouse's health behaviors. Furthermore, the provision, receipt, and consequences of these social control efforts may vary for men and women. These hypotheses are considered with analysis of a national panel survey conducted in 1986 (N = 3617) and 1989 (N = 2867). Results show that: (1) marriage is associated with receipt of substantially more efforts to control health for men than women, (2) those who attempt to control the health of others are more likely to be female than male, (3) there is some support for the social control and health behavior hypothesis among the married, and (4) the transition from married to unmarried status is associated with an increase in negative health behavior while the transition from unmarried to married status seems to have little effect on health behavior. A theoretical explanation is developed to explain these marital status differences.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Widowhood and depression: explaining long-term gender differences in vulnerability.

Results from a 1986 national survey (N = 3,614) show that having ever been widowed is associated with current levels of depression and that this association is greater for men than women. Some of this apparent gender difference occurs because men have been widowed for a shorter average period of time than women and the effects of widowhood appear to lessen over time. Widowhood also is associated with different types and amounts of life strain for men and women. The results suggest that the primary mechanism linking widowhood to depression among women is financial strain. Among men, the more critical mechanisms seem to be strains associated with household management. When specific strains occur, they appear to have different effects on respondents who have ever been widowed and those who have not. Taken together, these results suggest that what appears on the surface to be a gender difference in vulnerability to the same life event turns out upon closer examination to occur because widowhood does not affect men and women in the same way.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Social relationships and health.

Recent scientific work has established both a theoretical basis and strong empirical evidence for a causal impact of social relationships on health. Prospective studies, which control for baseline health status, consistently show increased risk of death among persons with a low quantity, and sometimes low quality, of social relationships. Experimental and quasi-experimental studies of humans and animals also suggest that social isolation is a major risk factor for mortality from widely varying causes. The mechanisms through which social relationships affect health and the factors that promote or inhibit the development and maintenance of social relationships remain to be explored.

Health↗