Inequality, Socioeconomic Status, and Social Support in Post-Disaster Mental Health in Mexico

• Published in: Human organization Vol. 70; no. 1; pp. 33 - 43
• Main Authors: Jones, Eric C., Gupta, Sat N., Murphy, Arthur D., Norris, Fran H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oklahoma City, OK Society for Applied Anthropology 01.04.2011; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: America; Blue collar workers; Cities; Class; Cognitive problems, arts and sciences, folk traditions, folklore; Comparative analysis; Depression; Depression (Psychology); Depressive disorders; Disasters; Ethnicity; Ethnology; Ethnopsychiatry. Ethnopsychoanalysis. Ethnopsychology; Floods; Health problems; Health services; Income inequality; Inequality; Medical anthropology; Mental depression; Mental disorders; Mental Health; Mental health care; Mexico; Migration, Violence, and Health; Mortality; Normativity; Nutrition research; Relative deprivation; Resources; Social Inequality; Social relations. Intercultural and interethnic relations. Collective identity; Social structure and social relations; Social Support; Socioeconomic factors; Socioeconomic Status; Socioeconomics; Studies; Towns; Traditional sciences and medicine; Vulnerability; White collar workers; Central America; Mexico; Socioeconomic status; Mental health; Social welfare; Depression; hurricane; recovery; Impact analysis; Latin America; Social inequality; Healing; Tornado; Symptom; class
• ISSN: 0018-7259; 1938-3525
• DOI: 10.17730/humo.70.1.4h340201207274qj

Disasters highlight the vulnerability of people who have limited access to resources. However, based on research from Mexico, we seek—in the context of disasters—to qualify the generalization that mental health is associated with social inequality and individual socioeconomic status. We collected data on socioeconomic status, social support, and depression in two storm-impacted cities (n=581) and four control cities (n=2,509) in Mexico. Two years after the storms, depression symptomology remained higher for disaster cities than for the control. Social support returned to better than normal levels in one impacted city, Villahermosa, during that period, but not in the other, Teziutlán—the harder hit city. Socioeconomic status appeared to have a small effect on depression, although co-correlation with perceived support suggests that social support is a stronger and more proximate cause, such that socioeconomic status—in addition to having a minor direct affect—may also work indirectly through availability of social support to affect vulnerability.