The depth of despair among midlife American adults

Citation

Gaydosh, Lauren; Hummer, Robert A.; Hargrove, Taylor Woodland; Dole, Nancy; Halpern, Carolyn Tucker; Hussey, Jon; Whitsel, Eric A.; & Harris, Kathleen Mullan (2018). The depth of despair among midlife American adults. Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America. Denver, CO.

Abstract

We use new data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) at Wave V to investigate contemporary indicators of despair among midlife American adults. We aim to document levels of despair among American adults, examining variation by educational attainment, race, and gender. We will examine changes in measures of despair across the early adult life course (24-42) from 2007-2017. We hypothesize that low educated whites will experience the highest levels of despair, as well as a worsening of despair across this period. We ask what sociodemographic and contextual measures predict despair, with a goal of providing a descriptive profile of individuals at greatest risk. Then we compare levels of despair across whites, blacks, and Hispanics with the same profiles, asking to what extent they can account for the observed sociodemographic patterns.

URL

https://paa.confex.com/paa/2018/webprogrampreliminary/Paper19203.html

Keyword(s)

despair midlife

Reference Type

Conference proceeding

Book Title

Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America

Series Title

Deaths and diseases of despair: Drugs, alcohol, and suicide

Author(s)

Gaydosh, Lauren
Hummer, Robert A.
Hargrove, Taylor Woodland
Dole, Nancy
Halpern, Carolyn Tucker
Hussey, Jon
Whitsel, Eric A.
Harris, Kathleen Mullan

Year Published

2018

City of Publication

Denver, CO

Reference ID

8341