PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

P A Thoits

Publications and source records attributed to P A Thoits.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Volunteer work and well-being.

Using two waves of panel data from Americans' Changing Lives (House 1995) (N = 2,681), we examine the relationships between volunteer work in the community and six aspects of personal well-being: happiness, life satisfaction, self-esteem, sense of control over life, physical health, and depression. Prior research has more often examined the effects of voluntary memberships than of volunteer work, has used cross-sectional rather than longitudinal data, and, when longitudinal, has emphasized social causation over selection effects. Focusing only on the consequences of volunteer work overlooks the antecedents of human agency. People with greater personality resources and better physical and mental health should be more likely to seek (or to be sought for) community service. Hence, we examine both selection and social causation effects. Results show that volunteer work indeed enhances all six aspects of well-being and, conversely, people who have greater well-being invest more hours in volunteer service. Given this, further understanding of self- versus social-selection processes seems an important next step. Do positive, healthy people actively seek out volunteer opportunities, or do organizations actively recruit individuals of these types (or both)? Explaining how positive consequences flow from volunteer service may offer a useful counterpoint to stress theory, which has focused primarily on negative life experiences and their sequelae.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed2000

Similar-other support for men undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery.

This field experiment examined effects of a support intervention on the physical and mental health of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery patients. Control participants (N = 90) received usual hospital care; experimental participants (N = 100) also received visits from a "similar other" while in the hospital. Similar others were Veterans Administration veterans who had CABG surgery previously and were trained in simple supportive techniques. Outcomes were assessed prior to surgery and at 1, 6, and 12 months afterwards. Unexpectedly, the intervention generally had no effects on participants' well-being. Further analysis showed that participants who talked often with fellow cardiac patients in the hospital ("de facto similar others") experienced improvements in their physical and emotional well-being over time.

Coronary Artery Bypass↗
PubMed1995

Stress, coping, and social support processes: where are we? What next?

I review existing knowledge, unanswered questions, and new directions in research on stress, coping resource, coping strategies, and social support processes. New directions in research on stressors include examining the differing impacts of stress across a range of physical and mental health outcomes, the "carry-overs" of stress from one role domain or stage of life into another, the benefits derived from negative experiences, and the determinants of the meaning of stressors. Although a sense of personal control and perceived social support influence health and mental health both directly and as stress buffers, the theoretical mechanisms through which they do so still require elaboration and testing. New work suggests that coping flexibility and structural constraints on individuals' coping efforts may be important to pursue. Promising new directions in social support research include studies of the negative effects of social relationships and of support giving, mutual coping and support-giving dynamics, optimal "matches" between individuals' needs and support received, and properties of groups which can provide a sense of social support. Qualitative comparative analysis, optimal matching analysis, and event-structure analysis are new techniques which may help advance research in these broad topic areas. To enhance the effectiveness of coping and social support interventions, intervening mechanisms need to be better understood. Nevertheless, the policy implications of stress research are clear and are important given current interest in health care reform in the United States.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1995

Identity-relevant events and psychological symptoms: a cautionary tale.

I examine the psychological impact of negative and positive events in roles that individuals view as salient or important for self-conception. Events in highly salient role-identity domains (identity-threatening and identity-enhancing events) should have greater effects on symptoms than those in less salient domains. Data come from interviews with a stratified two-wave panel sample of 532 married and divorced urban adults. Contrary to expectations, the influences of events on changes in psychological distress and alcohol/drug use were not dependent on the importance of the role-identity to the individual. Exploratory qualitative analyses suggested several reasons why. I reformulate the identity-relevant stress hypothesis in light of these observations, and argue that contextual details about events are required to test the revised hypothesis adequately. The complex influences of stressors on perceptions of identity salience need further examination as well.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Stressors and problem-solving: the individual as psychological activist.

Sociological researchers have tended to deemphasize the degree to which people are conscious, active agents in their own lives, focusing instead on factors which promote vulnerability to stress. But people are often motivated to act deliberately to resolve both acute and chronic role-related stressors. Thus, the relationship between stress experiences and negative psychological outcomes may be attributable primarily to stressors which individuals are unable to resolve. Using panel data on 532 married and divorced respondents in Indianapolis, I illustrate the effects of solved and unsolved problems (in the domains of work and love/marriage) on changes in psychological distress and substance use. People who failed to solve their job or love problems had more psychological symptoms, while the symptoms of successful problem-solvers did not differ from those of individuals whose situations were nonproblematic. Further exploratory analyses showed that the personality characteristics of mastery and self-esteem served to select individuals into--and out of--stressful circumstances, and that individuals were affected by the outcomes of problem-solving efforts in the work domain, or by attempts to solve problems in the love/marriage domain. These illustrative findings suggest that it can be theoretically and empirically fruitful to view individuals as agents making and shaping their lives, rather than primarily as passive subjects overwhelmed by situational stress.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1986

The distribution of distress among elders.

Older adults (aged 65 and over) are commonly portrayed as growing older and more distressed simultaneously. That is, distress is presumed not only to be widespread but more prevalent among older than younger adults. These perceptions are examined with data from a random probability sample of older adults (n = 476) living in the community. The findings indicate prevalence rates comparable with or lower than younger age groups. When these data are examined in regression analyses, the relative unimportance of age (as well as other demographic variables) becomes more obvious. These findings warrant a revised perception of distress and aging, one that acknowledges that older adults who reside in the community are subject to similar degrees of psychological distress as younger aged cohorts.

Aged↗
PubMed1982

Life stress, social support, and psychological vulnerability: epidemiological considerations.

Previous research indicates that relatively disadvantaged sociodemographic groups (women, the poor, the unmarried) are more vulnerable to the impacts of life events. More recently, researchers have hypothesized that the psychological vulnerability of these groups may be due to the joint occurrence of many stress events and few psychological resources with which to cope with such events. This latter hypothesis is called here the applied buffering hypothesis. Using data from the New Haven Community Survey, the existence of differential psychological vulnerability is first reconfirmed. Women; older adults; unmarried persons; those with less education, income, and occupational prestige; married women; and unmarried women are found significantly more distressed by the experience of life events than their sociodemographic counterparts. The applied buffering hypothesis is then tested with several measures of social support. Little support for the hypothesis is found. That is, the psychological vulnerability of low status groups cannot be explained by the interaction of many events and few available sources of social support. Limitations of the data and alternative explanations of these findings are discussed. The confirmation of psychological vulnerability in disadvantaged groups suggests new directions for future epidemiological research.

Community Mental Health Services↗