Social support, stress, and depression: Measurement and analysis of social well-being, mental health, and quality of life in a context of aging and Chinese culture

Stress and social support are two leading approaches to contemporary psychosocial studies of affective functioning and depression. The genuine effects of stress and social support, however, are not made very clear in empirical research because of various confusions among theoretical constructs as well as serious limitations in multidimensional scaling methods. This dissertation aims at advancing the state of the art by providing a comprehensive conceptual scheme to guide operationalization and analysis, as well as, articulating some theoretical and practical approaches to unidimensionalization to improve measurement. The idea of measurement power or scaling effectiveness is discussed to expand the notion of validity in relational studies. Some standardized scaling methods are formulated to establish comparability among various measures and results. A causal model is created by integrating the main research assumptions in the literature as well as by taking into account the potential impacts of aging, gender, and cultural differentiation. A reduced working model as well as some major individual hypotheses are tested against data on 1,504 elderly Chinese living in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and 204 elderly Chinese Americans living in Los Angeles, which were collected in cross-national surveys conducted during 1990-1992. The outcome is remarkable for an integral and optimal approach to data analysis incorporating both emphases on scale development and hypothesis testing. For each construct, different results obtained with different scale instruments are compared, and those proven more powerful or effective in detecting the relationships among the theoretical constructs are recommended. Holding a multiple and systematic measurement approach to psychosocial research, the study opens up a ground for inquiry and debate. It reveals some unique opportunities for promoting the leading research hypotheses via the Chen Approaches to Unidimensionalized Scaling (CAUS). On the whole, the findings reconfirm significant associations among affective functioning (depression), life stress and social support, with an appropriate understanding of the relationships among mental health, social well-being, and quality of life. The role of personal coping in assuaging stress and depression is also betokened. The hypothetical impact of aging, however, gains only marginal support from the empirical data. Gender difference, on the other hand, is relatively noticeable. Evidence is also obtained for the difference between elderly Chinese and Chinese Americans, though the results do not lend themselves to the myth that Chinese culture is associated with extremely low rates of depression.