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SOC > Social Influences on Mental Health > Flashcards

Social Influences on Mental Health Flashcards

1
Q

For most mental health problems, genes cannot fully explain which individuals will be affected

True or False?

A

TRUE

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2
Q

The heritability estimates for anxiety symptoms in childhood range between?

A

30-40%

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3
Q

Social interactions and systems play a fundamental role in development, how we learn and behave, and particularly in our mental health and well-being.

true or False?

A

TRUE

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4
Q

Mental ill-health is likely to arise from?

A

an interplay of genetic and social factors across the life-course

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5
Q

explain the 5 social systems of Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems?

A

1) microsystem: the groups and institutions that most immediately and directly impact the child’s development and well-being.
eg. family, day-care or school, peers

2) Mesosystem: interconnections between the different microsystems
eg. between parents and teachers or between children’s friends and their family members.

3) Exosystem: involves links between social settings that do not directly involve the child.
eg a child’s experience at home may be influenced by their parent’s experiences at work

4) Macrosystem: is the layer surrounding these previous three levels and consists of the wider society and culture that influences the developing child
5) Chronosystem: which works across all of the other four levels and represents how systems at all levels can change over time

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6
Q

We rely on individuals’ subjective perception of their social interactions when measuring social factors.
Common issues include?

A
  • Normal process of forgetting
  • The lack of understanding that children have of their social world
  • Young children may not recognise an interaction as being problematic
  • Young children may also be unable to remember events, a process called ‘infantile amnesia’
  • Embarrassment, stigma, or too upsetting to discuss certain sensitive interactions, such as sexual abuse
  • Reporting style – minimising / emotive / chaotic
  • Impact of mental health on the ability to recall
  • Depressed mood often leads to a negative perception of the world
  • Psychosis might hinder the veracity of the reports
  • Cognitive impairment may prevent accurate recall
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7
Q

What is childhood maltreatment?

A

Childhood maltreatment refers to a range of adverse experiences occurring between birth and approximately 17 years.

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8
Q

What are some common types of maltreatment?

A
  • sexual abuse
  • physical abuse
  • emotional abuse
  • psychological abuse
  • neglect (physical and emotional)
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9
Q

Childhood maltreatment has been associated with?

A
  • PTSD
  • Depression
  • Psychosis
  • Personality disorder
  • Substance misuse
  • Suicide attempts
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10
Q

Methods of assessment: Individual and documented reports

What is an advantage of individual reports?

A

• gain insight into the person’s own perspective on their exposure and understand what they’ve experienced

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11
Q

What are the 2 disadvantages of individual reports?

A
  • asking a child might be difficult and possibly unethical if doing so around the time of the event, due to potential distress, amnesia or denial, and/or fear
  • asking an adult in retrospect might be problematic due to forgetfulness, biased recall or embarrassment
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12
Q

What is the 1 advantage of documented reports? (social services etc)

A

• provides an independent and more objective source of information

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13
Q

What is the 1 disadvantage of a documented report?

A

• very few cases of maltreatment come to the attention of officials

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14
Q

Only 5.1% of those who reported experiencing physical abuse and 8.7% of those with a history of sexual abuse had any contact with Child Protection Services.

true or false?

A

TRUE

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15
Q

Observation of the family and home environment

What is 1 advantage?

A

provides an independent and more objective assessment of interactions and home environment

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16
Q

Disadvantages of the observation of the family and home environment?

A
  • potentially misleading behaviour and deceptive surroundings during home visits
  • observer bias
  • intrusive
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17
Q

What are 2 advantages of informed report?

A
  • partially independent report

* obtained around time of exposure

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18
Q

What are 2 disadvantages of the informed report?

A

based on person’s subjective perception of occurrence

informant may be unaware of or minimise exposure

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19
Q

It is very common in mental health studies to ask adults to retrospectively recall childhood maltreatment

What are 2 advantages of this?

A
  • more convenient as studies usually recruit adults who already have a diagnosed disorder
  • tends to be much cheaper than prospective methods
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20
Q

What is 1 disadvantage of the retrospective assessment?

A

may lead to different individuals being classified as being exposed to maltreatment

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21
Q

Almost 1/3 of individuals with documented childhood sexual abuse did not recall it when asked later

true or false?

A

TRUE

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22
Q

Bullying occurs when?

A
  • Occurs between individuals of the same age
  • Occurs over time
  • There is a power imbalance
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23
Q

Children who were severely and frequently bullied by the age of 12 had an increased risk of reporting psychotic symptoms

true or false?

A

TRUE

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24
Q

Risk remained even after controlling for what 3 things?

A
  • individual and socio-economic factors
  • children’s psychopathology
  • genetic susceptibility
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25
Q

What are some other factors that could account for differences in cortisol response in aged 5 children?

A
  • Birth weight
  • IQ
  • Behavioural problems
  • Emotional problems
  • Maternal warmth
26
Q

What are some other factors that could account for differences in cortisol response in aged 12

A
  • Body mass index
  • Pubertal maturity
  • Bullying perpetration
  • Maltreatment
  • Perceived stress differently
  • Negative emotion
27
Q

A lower cortisol response is not associated with problems among those who have experienced childhood harm

true or false?

A

FALSE

A lower cortisol response IS associated with problems only among those who have experienced childhood harm

28
Q

What are 3 factors which protect bullied children from developing emotional and behavioural difficulties?

A

Maternal health

sibling warmth

atmosphere at home

29
Q

SOCIAL INEQUALITIES

A
30
Q

Although anyone can experience a mental health condition, the chances of doing so are not equal among people in the population, nor is the access to appropriate support

TRUE OR FALSE?

A

TRUE

31
Q

What are some social determinants of (poor) mental health?

A 
• poverty, low income
• indebtedness
• discrimination and oppression
• intergenerational trauma
• childhood adversity
• homelessness 
• bullying
• poor physical health and disability
• caring responsibilities
• exposure to conflict
• unemployment
• insecure and poor quality employment
• low education
• low social status
• lack of social support (emotional,
instrumental, informational)
• loneliness
• lack of access to green space
• lack of exercise
• neighbourhood disorder and crime
• food insecurity
• inequality
32
Q

Unequal exposures lead to observed patterns of inequ(al)ities

What are some examples of unequal exposures?

A
  • low socio-economic status
  • minoritised ethnic groups
  • sexual minorities
  • looking after children
  • refugees and asylum seekers
  • some migrant groups
  • gender differences
  • people with disabilities
  • people with chronic health conditions
  • older people
  • people with substance use problems
  • children with parental mental ill health
33
Q

The experience of mental illness can cause and exacerbate existing social inequalities, and also lead to a decline in social circumstances.

true or false?

A

TRUE

34
Q

For example, mental health problems in childhood and adolescence can do what 2 things?

A
  • impair educational attainment and later employment outcomes
  • increase risk of later relationship problems, substance misuse, exposure to violence and crime
35
Q

What are two perspectives underpinning why social inequalities influence inequalities in mental health?

A

stress process theory and life course approaches

36
Q

Explain the stress process theory?

A

Social (status) stratification

Those lower on the hierarchy are more likely to experience adversity in relation to the social determinants

stressors refer to multiple disadvantageous circumstances and experiences associated with the social determinants. They can be discrete disruptive events, such as bereavement of a spouse, or chronic experiences woven into people’s everyday lives, such as discrimination and poverty.

37
Q

What does stress proliferation refer to?

A

Stress proliferation refers to the fact that both chronic and acute stressors often lead to exposure to other (secondary) stressors.

This can cause clustering of stressors in people’s lives, some of which may persist and contribute to cumulative adversity

38
Q

This can ultimately increase the allostatic load which is what?

A

burden of adaption

39
Q

Social stratification can result in what 2 things?

A
  • differential access to resources that can have a protective effect (material/economic, knowledge, power, prestige, cultural, social support)
  • differences in coping repertoires and self-concept (mastery & self-esteem, personal identity)
40
Q

Differences in response to stress are also linked to how salient the stressor is to valued personal and social identities, as well as to the different trajectories of our stress experience over the life course

true or false?

A

TRUE

41
Q

What does the lifecourse framework emphasise?

A

the importance of life transitions, as well as their timing and sequencing over time.

42
Q

Trajectories means what?

A

Patterns of change/continuity in people’s lives (whether normative/anticipated or unwanted/unanticipated) within societal and health domains.

43
Q

agency means?

A

People’s decisions/actions taken in steering their life trajectories. Social inequality can have a direct impact on agency and consequently affect mental health.

44
Q

What do linked lives and cohort mean in relation to the life course framework?

A

Linked lives:
Reciprocal effects of one’s agency over their life course on others with whom we have social relationships.

Cohort:
Historically distinct experiences and attributes belonging to different age groups linked to wider social and economic changes over time.

45
Q

There are overlaps between transitions and agency/mastery. what are they?

A

1) Transitions: their impact, timing and sequencing
- Disruptive impact
- The number of transitions occurring simultaneously has an impact on how stressful they feel
- Non-normative transitions may lead to significant accumulation of disadvantage and adversity over the life course, especially in people lower on the social status hierarchy

2) Agency/mastery
• Learned appraisals of one’s capability to manage their life circumstances or stressors
• Mastery is linked to successful attainment of socially relevant goals, which may be unequally distributed within society

46
Q

here are 3 main ways in which the past is connected to current social inequalities in mental health

What are they?

A
  • Patterns of status attainment (i.e. parental education, income)
  • Repeated/unbroken health-related hardships (i.e. exposure to discrimination, economic hardship)
  • Stress proliferation and cumulative adversity (i.e. trauma, unwanted transitions)
47
Q

Social interventions addressing mental health inequalities

A
48
Q

What are 2 strategies to address mental health inequalities?

A

must be grounded in cross-sectoral, multi-level policy and practice

must target different stages of people’s lives with approaches that are both universal and targeted

49
Q

Interventions tend to focus on tackling proximal social determinants rather than structural inequalities.

true or false?

A

TRUE

50
Q

What are examples of intervention targets during the Prenatal, pregnancy, perinatal/early years? (5)

A 
• parental education
• improving family conditions
• parenting support
• food security
- maternal mental health support
51
Q

What are examples of intervention targets during childhood and adolescence? (5)

A 
• mental health literacy 
• anti-bullying
- school based interventions
- inclusive education
- increasing access to education
52
Q

What are examples of intervention targets for young adults?

A
  • access to education and employment
  • family support
  • access to social welfare support
  • access to drug and alcohol services
  • reducing stigma • peer support
53
Q

What are examples of intervention targets for adulthood?

A 
• reducing income inequalities
• reducing alcohol consumption
• improving access to good quality and
secure employment
• access to adult education
• access to social welfare support
54
Q

What are examples of intervention targets for older adulthood? (4)

A
  • reducing social isolation (e.g. befriending)
  • reducing poverty including fuel poverty
  • increasing physical activity
  • access to social welfare support
55
Q

In Canada what is the mental health support body named?

A

Health Justice Program

56
Q

In the USA what is the mental health support body named?

A

National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership

57
Q

In the UK what is the mental health support body named?

A

Social welfare advice in healthcare settings

58
Q

In Australia what is the mental health support body named?

A

Health Justice Australia

59
Q

Name 7 country or international level interventions?

A

reducing income inequality – income security and social protection

increasing national wealth

increasing access to education & employment

improving living conditions

reducing inequalities in mental health services

tackling structural discrimination

supporting reduced alcohol consumption

60
Q

Inequalities in mental health are driven by unequal exposure to social determinants, including both risk and protective factors.

True or false?

A

TRUE

SOC (5 decks)

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