Tag: Spousal Relationship

The Ill Effect of Problematic Neighbourhood Environments on Spousal/Partner Relationships & Mental Health and Psychological Well-being

Published on by Andrew MarshallLeave a comment

Research Paper Title

Perceived neighbourhood disorder and psychological distress among Latino adults in the United States: Considering spousal/partner relationship.

Background

It has been well-established that neighbourhood disorder and disadvantage are detrimental to mental health and psychological well-being.

There has been growing research interest in minority stress issues, however, less is known about how perceived neighbourhood disorder matters for psychological well-being among Latino adults in the United States.

Methods

Analysing data from National Latino Asian American Study, 2002-2003, the present study investigates the relationships among perceived neighbourhood disorder, spousal/partner relationships (i.e., spousal/partner strain and support), and psychological distress.

Results

The findings indicated that perceived neighbourhood disorder and spousal/partner strain were positively associated with increased psychological distress, whereas spousal/partner support had no protective effect against psychological distress.

Moreover, mediation analysis showed that the association between perceived neighbourhood disorder and psychological distress was partially mediated by spousal/partner strain (i.e., 15.13%), not spousal support.

Finally, moderation analysis revealed that the presence of spousal/partner strain exacerbated the relationship between perceived neighbourhood disorder and psychological distress. Conversely, the absence of spousal/partner strain appeared to buffer the adverse impact of neighbourhood disorder on psychological distress.

Conclusions

These findings highlighted the ill effect of problematic neighbourhood environments on the quality of the spousal/partner relationship and subsequently Latino’s psychological well-being.

Reference

Kwon, S. (2019) Perceived neighborhood disorder and psychological distress among Latino adults in the United States: Considering spousal/partner relationship. Journal of Community Psychology. doi: 10.1002/jcop.22288. [Epub ahead of print].