University of Victoria

Issues in Mental Health, and Well-being I

This session considers the influence of social environment and social experience on mental distress and disorder, focusing especially on differences in mental health across social groups, and explanations of these differences in terms of the exposure to different types of macro or micro level stressors and access to social and personal coping resources. The emphasis is on recent trends in mental health research, while addressing traditional concerns as well.

Session Organizer: Shirin Montazer, Brock University, smontazer@brocku.ca

Neighbourhood Disadvantage, Personal Resources, and Work-Family Conflict: An Application of the Structural Amplification Model

Marisa Young, University of Toronto, marisa.young@mail.utoronto.ca , Blair Wheaton, University of Toronto, blair.wheaton@utoronto.ca

Our research questions whether neighbourhood disadvantage impacts work-family conflict (WFC) and its mental health consequences. Drawing on ideas of structural amplification, we argue that neighbourhood disadvantage and disorder lead to WFC directly—generating additional conflicts between work and family obligations, and indirectly—by undermining the sense of personal control that individuals would otherwise use to combat the effects of neighbourhood context on WFC and its consequences. We consider one focal psychological resource: the sense of personal control. In light of research on gender differences in the roles and experiences of work, family, and neighbourhoods, we also test whether our hypotheses vary for men and women. Using 2011 data from individuals in Toronto, Canada matched to census data, we highlight several focal findings: First, neighbourhood disadvantage and perceived disorder are positively associated with WFC. However, the association between disadvantage and WFC is significant for women only. Second, consistent with ideas of structural amplification, we find that lower levels of personal control result in more WFC for individuals who perceive higher levels of disorder in their neighbourhood. Third, perceived disorder increases the effects of WFC on distress more for women than men, while personal control buffers the effects of WFC on distress for both men and women. We discuss these results in relation to structural amplification theory and neighbourhood effects literature more broadly.

Wednesday June 5, 2013 03:15 PM - 04:45 PM Building: Elliott Building, Room: E-160

Supportive and Conflictive Relations in the Supervisor-Subordinate Dyad: An Analysis of Demographic and Authority Differentials

Scott Schieman, University of Toronto, scott.schieman@utoronto.ca , Markus Schafer, University of Toronto, markus.schafer@utoronto.ca

In the workplace, most people face the situation of directly answering to another person. The quality of this supervisor-subordinate arrangement has clear consequences for workers’ job satisfaction, but also for aspects of their lives extending beyond the workplace, including physical and mental health. The present study tested a series of hypotheses that evolve from several overlapping perspectives: relational demography, similarity-attraction, and relational norms. In analyses of a 2011 nationally representative sample Canadian of workers, three main contributions emerge: (1) supervisor gender is influential, but in different ways for supervisor support and conflict—and the patterns for support also depend on subordinates’ gender; (2) supervisor age matters in similar ways for both support and conflict—and subordinates’ age functions as an additional effect modifier; (3) subordinates’ own degree of job authority is associated with perceptions of supervisor support and conflict, although the effects are suppressed by the job-related resources related to job authority. Moreover, each of these distinct sets of findings emerges independently of the others. Collectively, the findings provide novel insights and conclusions about the similarity, dissimilarity, and relational norms hypotheses.

Wednesday June 5, 2013 03:15 PM - 04:45 PM Building: Elliott Building, Room: E-160

Linking Social Support to Mental Health among Street-Involved Youth

Mary Clare Kennedy, University of Victoria, mary06@uvic.ca , Mikael Jansson, University of Victoria, mjansson@uvic.ca , Cecilia Benoit, University of Victoria, cbenoit@uvic.ca , Doug Magnusson, University of Victoria, dougm@uvic.ca

Research suggests that social support - companionship and practical, informational and esteem support derived from interactions with personal contacts- is a key determinant of mental health among adolescents and young adults. However, compared to conventional populations of young people, there is limited research on the impact of social support on the mental health of street-involved youth. We seek to address this knowledge gap by examining the link between key indicators of social support and the mental health outcomes of this vulnerable population. Drawing on closed- and open-ended data from longitudinal mixed-methods study of 210 street-involved youth in the Victoria Census Metropolitan Area, we present findings on participants’ social support networks and their impact on participants’ mental health, controlling for other major health determinants. Our findings suggest that most street-involved youth are embedded in meaningful social relationships, with some participants drawing support from kinship and friendship ties they had prior to street-involvement and others locating themselves primarily within new street-based relationships. Only a small minority of participants do not identify a social network. We discuss how availability and sources of social support affect mental health, and conclude with suggestions for interventions to improve the mental health of street-involved youth.

Wednesday June 5, 2013 03:15 PM - 04:45 PM Building: Elliott Building, Room: E-160