Say me where you live, I will say to you how you go

The people who live in disadvantaged districts make more depression than the inhabitants of the easy districts. It is what affirms an American study, according to which the cause of the discomfort would not be only quality of life but also the quality of the vicinity.

Do the people of the disadvantaged districts make more depression than the others? If so, is this with personal problems or the framework of life? Such are the questions which Catherine Ross tried to answer, sociologist at the University of State of Ohio (the United States), in a study published in the “Newspaper off Health and Social Behavior” of June 2000.

Does the money make happiness?

The sociologist based herself on a telephone investigation carried out in 1995 out of 2500 hearths of Illinois (the United States). The data collected included/understood inter alia information on the incomes, the marital status, the place of residence and the possible depressive feelings.

According to previous sociological studies, many factors are known to increase the risks of depression: unemployment, low-incomes, parents isolated… However, obviously, the majority of the disadvantaged districts lodge underprivileged people themselves. Catherine Ross thus tried to dissociate the influence of the personal problems of those related to the environment, in order to really determine the specific factors of depression of the vicinity. For it the disadvantaged districts are defined by two characteristics: the disadvantage and social disorder. A handicapped district is defined like a place in which the social and economic resources are weak. These districts would be also characterized by a less good level of equipment and establishments such as the schools or the parks. This lack of infrastructures would be felt by the inhabitants like an abandonment on behalf of the company. According to the sociologist, limited opportunities or misses it services cause the appearance of social disorder: “Compared with young people of more favoured districts which think than if they remain at the school and avoid the prison they will have good employment appropriatenesses, the young people which think of having little chances to succeed can be less inclined to remain at the school and to prefer to engage in illegal activities, thus increasing the level of disorder of the vicinity”.

Unmarried mothers, factors of social disorder?

To correlate between them certain elements (i.e. to establish scientifically that there exists a bond between these elements), the sociologist has to specify certain concepts and measuring instruments. In its study, it thus defines the depression as a negative emotion (sadness, loneliness…) accompanied by a physical faintness (disorders of the concentration, insomnia…). It specifies moreover than the evaluation of the more or less underprivileged situation of a district can be done starting from the perception which the inhabitants of the conditions and the activities of the vicinity have (graffiti, vandalism, alcoholism, drug…). According to Catherine Ross, in addition to the questionnaire, the evaluation of the underprivileged character or not of a district can be realized starting from the percentage of poor people and also of the number of unmarried mothers. Indeed, various studies would have shown the utility of these two markers: the degree of poverty thus makes it possible to measure the economic disadvantage of a district and the number of unmarried mothers, if it can be correlated at the economic level, would be a marker of the social disorder. On this role of the unmarried parents, the author of the precise study: “According to Wilson (1996), poverty alone does not involve the collapse of the social order when the poor families are mainly Bi-parental families […]. The unmarried parents would be perhaps less capable to control their children, and of the neighbors who are also unmarried parents are perhaps able to supervise the children of the ones and others”. These children delivered to themselves would be thus, according to the sociologist, person in charge of part of the social disorder.

Significant influence of the district

The results of the investigation seem to show the bond between the place of residence and the depression: the fact of living in a disadvantaged district would increase by 23% the risk to be depressed. The sociologist then examined the detail of results to evaluate the various influences. She thus observed that certain situations did not have any significant bond with the rate of depression: average school level of the district, rate of people owners of their apartment or tenants, the type of population (black American or Hispanic) or geographical stability (people present in the same dwelling since more than five years).

Admittedly, the study shows primarily a correlation, already known, between the elements of the personal situation and the rate of depression: the women are more depressive than the men, those which have high incomes are it less than the unemployed or the low wages, the people married with or without children would be depressed than the single people, the elderly would be it less than the young people, etc the sociologist would have even found a bond between the practice of illegal activity and the increase in the risk of depression (according to the author, the delinquents would be perhaps distressed with the idea to be made stop or must be wary of many people…).

Independently of these personal factors, the study showed the significant influence of the place of dwelling. According to the results, the social disorder and the disadvantages of the district (related on the degree of poverty and the rates of unmarried mothers) would thus increase by 8% the risk of depression. This result could represent an impression more than one reality: the people who report the most social disturbances are apparently those which also are depressed.

Thus, if you are a young unemployed and that your vicinity comprises many unmarried mothers, the depression grinds certainly in your district…