American adults of low socioeconomic status report increasing mental distress and worsening well-being, according to a new study by Princeton University and Georgetown University.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is among the first to investigate if the psychological health of Americans has worsened over time, as suggested by the “deaths of despair” narrative, linking rising mortality in midlife to drugs, alcohol and suicide.
The results show that distress is not just a midlife phenomenon but a scenario plaguing disadvantaged Americans across the life course. The findings should be taken into account in terms of policy and advocacy efforts, the researchers said.
“Our results paint a picture of substantial social stratification in the psychological health of American adults, one that has been widening as declines in mental health have occurred unevenly across the socioeconomic spectrum,” said co-lead author Noreen Goldman, the Hughes-Rogers Professor of Demography and Public Affairs at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. “The findings are consistent with drug overdose death rates and underscore the dire need for improved access to, and affordability of, mental health services for low-income and less-educated American adults of all ages.”
Goldman, along with Dana Glei and Maxine Weinstein of Georgetown’s Center for Population and Health, wanted to investigate whether mental health had deteriorated since the mid-1990s, a period known for boosted opioid use and rising mortality from suicide, drugs and alcohol.
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The paper, “Declining mental health among disadvantaged Americans” was published in PNAS on June 18.
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