Social Class and Psychological Disorder in Natives and Immigrants To Britain

Abstract

An examination is made of various hypotheses which have been developed to account for the frequently observed inverse relationship between social class and psychological disturbance. Two of these explanations — the social selection and social causation hypotheses — are tested in a study designed to enable an assessment of their relative power to be made. Quasi-random samples of 200 Indian-born, 200 Pakistani-born and 240 native-born residents of England were interviewed and measures of social class, psychological symptoms and other relevant variables made. The results failed to support either of the two hypotheses as the expected social class gradient in psychological disorder only emerged in the native group. Indian immigrants in fact showed a reversal with higher status individuals, especially women, having higher symptom levels. Overall Indian immigrants had significantly fewer symptoms than either of the other groups. The findings are discussed in terms of differential selection for migration and the varying experiences of immigrants after arrival in Britain.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Antunes, G. , Gordon, C. , Gaitz, C.M. , Scott, J. : "Ethnicity, socioeconomic status and the etiology of psychological distress." Sociol. Soc. Res. 1974, 58, 361-368.

Bachrach, L. : Marital Status and Mental Disorder: An Analytical Review. Washington, D.C.: Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare 1975.

Cochrane, R. : "Mental illness in immigrants to England and Wales: an analysis of mental hospital admissions, 1971." Social Psychiatry 1977, 12, 25-35.

Cochrane, R. : "A comparative study of the adjustment of Irish, Indian and Pakistani immigrants to England. " The Mahesh Desai Memorial Lecture. British Psychological Society Conference, Nottingham (1979).

Cochrane, R. : "A comparative evaluation of the Symptom Rating Test and the Langner 22-Item Index for use in epidemiological surveys." Psychol. Med. 1980, 10, 115-124.

Cochrane, R. , Hashmi, F. , Stopes-Roe, M. : "Measuring psychological disturbance in Asian immigrants to Britain ." Soc. Sci. Med. 1977 , 11, 157-164.

Cochrane, R. , Stopes-Roe, M. : "Factors affecting the distribution of psychological symptoms in urban areas of England." Acta Psychiat. Scand. 1980 , 61, 445-460.

Crandell, W.L. , Dohrenwend, B.P. : "Some relations among psychiatric symptoms, organic illness, and social class." Amer. J. Pschiat. 1967, 123, 1527-1538.

Dohrenwend, B.P. , Chin-Shong, E. : "Social status and attitudes toward psychological disorder: the problem of tolerance of deviance." Amer. Sociol. Rev. 1967, 32, 417-533.

10.

Dohrenwend, B.P. , Dohrenwend, B.S. : Social Status and Psychological Disorder: A Casual Inquiry. New York: Wiley 1969 .

11.

Eaton, W.W. Lasry, J.C. : "Mental health and occupational mobility in a group of immigrants." Soc. Sci. Med. 1978, 12, 53-58.

12.

Faris, R.E. , Dunham, H.W. : Mental Disorder in Urban Areas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1939.

13.

Gove, W. R. (ed.): The Labelling of Deviance. New York: Wiley, 1975, pp 35-81.

14.

Gove, W.R. , Howell, P. : "Individual resources and mental hospitalization: a comparison and evaluation of the societal reaction and psychiatric perspectives." Amer. Sociol. Rev. 1974, 39, 86-100.

15.

Harkey, J. , Miles, D.L. , Rushing, W.A. : "The relation between social class and functional status: a new look at the drift hypothesis." J. Hlth. soc. Behav. 1976, 17, 194-204.

16.

Hare, E.E. , Shaw, G.K. : Mental Health on a New Housing Estate. New York : Oxford University Press, 1965 .

17.

Hashmi, F. : "Community psychiatric problems among Birmingham immigrants." Brit. J. Soc. Psychiat. 1968, 3, 196-203;

18.

Hollingshead, A.B. , Redlich, F.C. : Social Class and Mental Illness . New York: Wiley, 1968.

19.

Langner, T.S. , Michael, S.T. : Life Stresses and Mental Health: The Midtown Study. Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, 1963.

20.

Lee, R.P.L. : "The casual priority between socioeconomic status and psychiatric disorder: a prospective study." Internat. J. soc. Psychiat. 1976, 22, 1-8;

21.

Meile, R.L. , Gregg, W.E. : "Dimensionality of the Index of Psycho-physiological Stress." Soc. Sci. Med. 1973, 7, 643-648.

22.

Roberts, R.E. , Forthofer, R.N. , Fabrega , H. : "Further evidence on the dimensionality of the Index of Psycho-physiological Stress." Soc. Sci. Med. 1976, 10, 483-490.

23.

Rushing, W.A. , Ortega, S.T. : "Socioeconomic status and mental disorder — new evidence and a sociomedical formulation." Amer. J. Sociol. 1979, 84, 1175-1200.

24.

Scheff, T.J. : Being Mentally Ill: A Sociological Theory . Chicago: Aldine, 1966.

25.

Schwab, J.J. , Bell, R.A. , Warheit, G.J. , Schwab, R.B. : Social Order and Mental Health: The Florida Health Study. New York: Brunner/Mazel , 1979 .

26.

Smith, D.J. : The Facts of Racial Disadvantage. London: P.E.P., 1976.

27.

Stopes-Roe, M. : "A family contact index: working paper." University of Birmingham, 1978.

28.

Stopes-Roe, M. , Cochrane, R. : "Patterns of well-being and integration: a comparison of Indian, Pakistani and Irish immigrants to England." Ethnic and Racial Studies. 1980, 3, 316-341.

29.

Turner, R.J. , Wagenfeld, M.O. : "Occupational mobility and schizophrenia: an assessment of the social causation and social selection hypotheses." Amer. Sociol Rev. 1967, 32, 104-113.