Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T19:50:41.143Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social Relationships, Adversity and Neurosis: A Study of Associations in a General Population Sample

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Scott Henderson ,
D. G. Byrne ,
P. Duncan-Jones ,
Ruth Scott  and
Sylvia Adcock
Scott Henderson
Affiliation:
National Health and Medical Research Council, Social Psychiatry Research Unit, The Australian National University, Canberra, A.C.T. 2600, Australia
D. G. Byrne
Affiliation:
National Health and Medical Research Council, Social Psychiatry Research Unit, The Australian National University, Canberra, A.C.T. 2600, Australia
P. Duncan-Jones
Affiliation:
National Health and Medical Research Council, Social Psychiatry Research Unit, The Australian National University, Canberra, A.C.T. 2600, Australia
Ruth Scott
Affiliation:
National Health and Medical Research Council, Social Psychiatry Research Unit, The Australian National University, Canberra, A.C.T. 2600, Australia
Sylvia Adcock
Affiliation:
National Health and Medical Research Council, Social Psychiatry Research Unit, The Australian National University, Canberra, A.C.T. 2600, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

A standardized study of the point prevalence of non-psychotic disorder was carried out on a systematic sample of Canberra residents (N = 756). Rates were estimated for PSE CATEGO diagnoses and the Index of Definition. The association between neurosis and deficiencies in social relationships was examined, using the Interview Schedule for Social Interaction (ISSI). An objective measure of exposure to adversity was also obtained at interview. Both attachment and social integration (affectionally close and more diffuse relationships) were found to be negatively associated with neurosis. This association holds in its own right, in addition to an interaction with the load of adversity. The associations are weaker for men.

The significance of this work lies in its demonstration of an association between neurosis and the lack of social ties, and in its attempt to obtain a specification of those elements in social relationships which, when deficient, may be associated with neurosis. The direction of causality has now to be investigated.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 136 , Issue 6 , June 1980 , pp. 574 - 583
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bowlby, J. (1973) Attachment and Loss. Volume II. Separation: Anxiety and Anger. London: Hogarth Press; New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1977) The making and breaking of affectional bonds. 1. Aetiology and psychopathology in the light of attachment theory. British Journal of Psychiatry, 130, 201–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, G. W., Bhrolcháin, M. N. & Harris, T. (1975) Social class and psychiatric disturbance among women in an urban population. Sociology, 9, 225–54.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. (1978) Social Origins of Depression: A Study of Psychiatric Disorder in Women, p. 173 et seq. London: Tavistock Publications.Google Scholar
Cassel, J. (1976) The contribution of the social environment to host resistance. American Journal of Epidemiology, 104, 107–23.Google Scholar
Dean, A. & Lin, N. (1977) The stress-buffering role of social support: problems and prospects for systematic investigation. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 165, 403–17.Google Scholar
Duncan-Jones, P. (1978) The Interview Measurement of Social Interaction. Proceedings of the Research Committee on the Sociology of Mental Health, Ninth World Congress of Sociology, Uppsala, August, 1978.Google Scholar
Duncan-Jones, P. & Henderson, S. (1978) The use of a two-phase design in a population survey. Social Psychiatry, 13, 231–7.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. P. (1972) The Detection of Psychiatric Illness by Questionnaire. Institute of Psychiatry Maudsley Monographs No. 21. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Henderson, S. (1977) The social network, support and neurosis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 185–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Henderson, S. (in press) A development in social psychiatry: the systematic study of social bonds. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. Google Scholar
Henderson, S., Duncan-Jones, P., McAuley, H. & Ritchie, K. (1978a) The patient's primary group. British Journal of Psychiatry, 132, 74–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henderson, S., Byrne, D. G., Duncan-Jones, P., Adcock, S., Scott, R. & Steele, G. P. (1978b) Social bonds in the epidemiology of neurosis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 132, 463–6.Google Scholar
Henderson, S., Duncan-Jones, P., Byrne, D. G., Scott, R. & Adcock, S. (1979) Psychiatric disorder in Canberra: a standardized study of prevalence. (In press) Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. Google Scholar
Holmes, T. H. & Rahe, R. H. (1967) The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 11, 213–8.Google Scholar
Ilfeld, F. W. (1976) Characteristics of current social stressors. Psychological Reports, 39, 1231–47.Google Scholar
Miller, P. McC. & Ingham, J. G. (1976) Friends, confidants and symptoms. Social Psychiatry, 11, 51–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paykel, E. S., Prusoff, B. A. & Uhlenhuth, E. H. (1971) Scaling of life events. Archives of General Psychiatry, 25, 340–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steele, G. P., Henderson, S. & Duncan-Jones, P. (in press) The reliability of reporting adverse experiences. Psychological Medicine. Google Scholar
Tennant, C. & Andrews, G. (1976) A scale to measure the stress of life events. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 10, 27–32.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K. (1976) A technique for studying psychiatric morbidity in in-patient and out-patient series and in general population samples. Psychological Medicine, 6, 665–71.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974) The Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Weiss, R. S. (1974) The provisions of social relationships. In Doing unto Others. (ed. Rubin, Z.), Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Zung, W. W. K. (1965) A self-rating depression scale. Archives of General Psychiatry, 12, 63–70.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.