Vés enrere CRES-Seminar: Michael T. French

CRES-Seminar: Michael T. French

Working Paper: “Relationships between Current and Lifetime Mental Health Issues and Self-Reported Relative Placement in Society”

Date: 23rd of November at 13h00

Room: Campus Ciutadella, 23.103

02.11.2022

 

Michael T. French is a Health Economics Professor at the University of Miami, as well as the Academic Director of the Master of Health Administration (MHA) and the Director of the Health Economics Research Group (HERG) at the same university. He was a Visiting Professor at the Pompeu Fabra University in 2000, collaborating with CRES-UPF.

Full CV

 

Abstract

Background: Mental health issues can impact overall health status, personal relationships, workplace productivity, and other social outcomes. Less is known about how and to what extent mental health issues are related to subjective social status (SSS).

Objectives: To determine whether recent and lifetime mental health problems are significantly related to respondents’ SSS. 

Research Design: Our empirical approach first examines bivariate relationships between self-reported mental health measures and SSS.  Next, we estimate cross-sectional multivariate regression models.  The final empirical models estimate fixed-effects regressions to control for potential bias due to time-invariant heterogeneity. 

Subjects: Respondents to Waves IV and V of the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) provide the data for our research.

Measures: Subjects were asked to rate their perceived relative placement in society (i.e., SSS) in terms of wealth, education, and occupational positions.  Respondents also answered questions about their mental health status including ever diagnosed with depression, ever diagnosed with PTSD, ever diagnosed with anxiety or panic disorder, and any psychological or emotional counseling during the past year.

Results: All mental health measures are negatively and significantly associated with SSS. The effect sizes are relatively large in magnitude, particularly for respondents with an ever-in-lifetime diagnosis of depression. The effect sizes diminish somewhat with the fixed-effects specifications, but almost always remain statistically significant.

Conclusions: These findings have important policy implications for mental health counselors, employers, and society in general as mental health problems become more common and less stigmatized.

Key Words: Mental Health; Subjective Social Status; PTSD; Depression; Counseling

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