Kabo Felichism W, Antonucci Toni C, Jackson James S
Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Innov Aging. 2019 Feb 18;3(1):igz001. doi: 10.1093/geroni/igz001. eCollection 2019 Jan.
Family ties and role relationships through their effects on exchanges of resources and social support are critical health contexts for older African Americans. We studied the influence of affect-based (positive or negative) social relations and respondent-role network centrality on depressive symptoms in older African Americans compared to two ethno-racial groups, Black Caribbeans and Non-Hispanic Whites.
We used data from the multigenerational 2004 National Survey of American Life Family Connections across Generations and Nations Study (NSAL 3-Gen). For respondents aged 50 years or older, we used tie affect (positive or negative) to code family role relations and two-mode (where an entity or thing is connected to a different type of entity, here individuals are connected to role relations) family networks. We used survey linear regressions to probe the independent association of relations and networks on depressive symptoms among older African Americans as compared to Black Caribbeans and Non-Hispanic Whites.
Negative and positive relations are significantly associated with depressive symptoms, but there were some ethno-racial differences. For example, the negative relation is significantly associated with greater depressive symptoms among African Americans, but not in Black Caribbeans and Non-Hispanic Whites. Negative two-mode networks (connections from individuals to role relations) are significantly associated with depressive symptoms among African Americans and in the two comparison ethno-racial groups, while there is no significant association between positive networks and depressive symptoms.
We found that negative relations had larger effects on depressive symptoms than positive ones, and conversely that negative networks had larger effects than positive networks. Simultaneously modeling social relations and networks could potentially enhance our understanding of the links between social structure, and depressive symptoms among older adults in African American and other ethno-racial minorities.
家庭关系和角色关系通过对资源交换和社会支持的影响，成为美国老年非裔重要的健康环境。与两个族裔群体，即黑人加勒比人和非西班牙裔白人相比，我们研究了基于情感（积极或消极）的社会关系以及受访者角色网络中心性对美国老年非裔抑郁症状的影响。
我们使用了来自多代人的2004年美国生活全国调查——跨代与跨民族家庭关系研究（NSAL 3-Gen）的数据。对于50岁及以上的受访者，我们使用情感纽带（积极或消极）来编码家庭角色关系以及双模式（一个实体或事物与不同类型的实体相连接，在此处个体与角色关系相连接）家庭网络。与黑人加勒比人和非西班牙裔白人相比，我们使用调查线性回归来探究关系和网络对美国老年非裔抑郁症状的独立关联。
消极和积极关系均与抑郁症状显著相关，但存在一些族裔差异。例如，消极关系与美国非裔的抑郁症状显著相关，但在黑人加勒比人和非西班牙裔白人中并非如此。消极双模式网络（个体与角色关系的连接）与美国非裔以及两个对比族裔群体的抑郁症状显著相关，而积极网络与抑郁症状之间无显著关联。
我们发现消极关系对抑郁症状的影响比积极关系更大，相反，消极网络的影响比积极网络更大。同时对社会关系和网络进行建模可能会增强我们对社会结构与美国非裔及其他族裔少数群体老年人抑郁症状之间联系的理解。
