Biomedical subjects

R D Caplan

Publications and source records attributed to R D Caplan.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1996

Hard times and hurtful partners: how financial strain affects depression and relationship satisfaction of unemployed persons and their spouses.

The process linking unemployment and economic hardship to depression and marital or relationship satisfaction in couples was examined. Using structural equation modeling, the authors tested models in which financial strain and partners' symptoms of depression influence the behavioral exchange of the couples in terms of social support and social undermining and, in turn, the effects of support and undermining on relationship satisfaction and depressive symptoms. The analyses were based on longitudinal data from 815 recently unemployed job seekers and their spouses or partners. The results demonstrated that financial strain had significant effects on depressive symptoms of both partners, which in turn led the partner to withdraw social support and increase social undermining. Reduced supportive and increase undermining behaviors had additional adverse effects on satisfaction with the relationship and on depressive symptoms.

Depression↗

PubMed1991

From field experiments to program implementation: assessing the potential outcomes of an experimental intervention program for unemployed persons.

Demonstrated a procedure suggested by Bloom (1984) to provide estimates for the effects of an intervention on its actual participants compared to global effects on study participants in the intervention group, whether or not they showed up. Analyses were based on data collected in a field experiment that tested a preventive intervention for unemployed persons (Caplan, Vinokur, Price & van Ryn, 1989). Effect size estimates were two to three times larger for the actual participant group than for the entire experimental group on employment outcomes (e.g., earnings) and mental health (anxiety and depression). Further analyses produced results showing that compared to participants, the nonparticipants achieved significantly higher levels of reemployment at posttests and did not differ significantly from participants on all other outcomes. The results suggest that persons who most needed the intervention and benefited from it were drawn into it through self-selection processes.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1989

Physical and psychosocial functioning and adjustment to breast cancer. Long-term follow-up of a screening population.

The effects of age, recency of breast cancer (BC) diagnosis, and severity of the disease on adjustment outcomes were investigated in a sample of 349 women from the 10,056 women screened for BC by the University of Michigan Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project between 1974 and 1981. In the 1985 follow-up, data were collected from the 173 surviving BC patients who had invasive BC, and from a matched control group of 176 women who were asymptomatic of BC. Fifty-five percent of the BC patients were 5 years past diagnosis and treatment at the time of data collection. The BC patients group as a whole did not differ from the asymptomatic control group on indicators of mental health, social and psychological well-being, or physical functioning. However, the BC group reported a greater number of diagnosed medical conditions that limited their activities, and taking more medications, than the asymptomatic group. Within the BC group, severity and recency of the cancer had strong independent adverse effects on several of the indicators of mental health and physical functioning. Advanced age had the same main effects in both groups: greater number of medications and diagnosed medical conditions that cause limitations in activities, but, in contrast, better mental health and well-being. Age had interactive effects with the recency and with severity of BC: more recent and severe cases of BC appeared to produce particularly serious difficulties in psychological adjustment for younger patients, and particularly serious medical problems and physical difficulties in adjustment for older patients.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed1989

Job seeking, reemployment, and mental health: a randomized field experiment in coping with job loss.

Cognitive theories of adherence to difficult courses of action and findings from previous survey research on coping with a major life event--job loss--were used to generate a preventive intervention, tested by a randomized field experiment. The aim was to prevent poor mental health and loss of motivation to seek reemployment among those who continued to be unemployed and to promote high-quality reemployment. Ss were 928 recently unemployed adults from southeastern Michigan, representing a broad range of demographic characteristics; they were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control condition. The experimental intervention included training in job seeking with a problem-solving process emphasizing inoculation against setbacks and positive social reinforcement. A pretest was administered, followed by posttests 1 and 4 months after the experiment. The experimental condition yielded higher quality reemployment in terms of earnings and job satisfaction, and higher motivation among those who continued to be unemployed.

Adult↗

PubMed1987

Determinants of perceived social support: interpersonal transactions, personal outlook, and transient affective states.

During the last decade, the study of social support has relied heavily on recipients' reports of perceived support. However, such reports of support may reflect not only actual supportive interpersonal transactions but also the recipients' own personal and perceptual dispositions and comparatively transient mood states. This study examines these factors' independent effects on perceived support. Interpersonal transactions of social support were assessed in a longitudinal panel design using reports from 486 adult male respondents and their significant others (mostly wives). Using structural modeling techniques (LISREL VI), an unfolding series of statistical analyses were performed. The results provide strong support for a model in which recipients' perception of support is determined significantly and strongly by actual interpersonal transactions as reported by significant others, moderately by the recipients' negative outlook bias, and weakly by their anxiety and depression as indicators of their poor mental health. The implications of the results for future research are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1986

Cognitive and affective components of life events: their relations and effects on well-being.

A model of how five key facets of life events are related to one another and influence mental health and functioning was examined. The facets are the experience of control over, anticipation of, pleasantness from, stress generated by, and adjustment to life events. Multivariate analyses of data from 420 adult male respondents yielded results that were largely consistent with the hypothesized model. The results suggested that control over and anticipation of life events influenced the perceived stress produced by the events and the ability to adjust to them. In turn, it appeared that such stress and adjustment influenced mental health and functioning. The effects of control and anticipation on mental health and functioning were indirect only. Contrary to our hypothesis, control seemed to heighten perceived stress; but control, as well as anticipation, appeared to increase the ability to adjust. Whereas previous studies found no effect of desirable events on well-being, this study found that pleasant events had a beneficial effect. The discussion examines the implications of the findings for future research.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1985

Social effects of diazepam use: a longitudinal field study.

A longitudinal panel study examined the effects of actual use of diazepam (Valium) on subjective reports of life quality, affect, performance, stress, social support, control, coping and other variables related to mental health. Standardized interviews were conducted with 675 persons from the Detroit Metropolitan Area. Based on prescription records, diazepam users and nonusers were selected to represent a variety of sociodemographic characteristics rather than to be a completely random sample. Significant others in work and in personal life were also interviewed. Four interviews took place, one approximately every 6 weeks. Testing for social effects was conducted by within- and across-person analyses of 367 respondents who reported taking the medication at some time during the study and by comparisons with 308 respondents who did not report taking Valium. Users of Valium tended to take less Valium than prescribed. They also reported consuming less alcohol when using Valium than at other times and less than non-Valium users. Although there was a modest, positive cross-sectional relation between Valium use and distress, numerous multivariate analyses controlling for levels of stress and health indicated no notable effects of Valium use on any of the social or psychological indicators, including anxiety. Several interpretations of the results are examined including the possibility that the effects of Valium use were short-lived rather than long-term and that Valium may have been taken in anticipation of anxiety rather than after its occurrence.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1985

Subjective past, present, and future fit: effects on anxiety depression, and other indicators of well-being.

Hypotheses were tested regarding the effects of subjective current, retrospected, and anticipated person-environment fit on affective and somatic strain and well-being. Two-hundred seven university students preparing for annual academic examinations at an Indian university completed self-administered questionnaires measuring parameters of the hypotheses. A distinction was made between cognitive (e.g., meeting demands for intelligence, good memory) and motivational (e.g., being able to muster the effort) fit. Cognitive poor fit had a greater effect on predicting high levels of strain across all time frames but did best in the past and current frames. Motivational poor fit had its greatest effect on strain when poor fit dealt with anticipated or current fit. These findings are discussed in terms of hypotheses, which suggest that the more subjectively uncontrollable a dimension of fit, the more salient it is in the past time frame, whereas the more subjectively controllable the dimension, the more salient it is in the future time frame.

Affect↗

PubMed1984