Residential Goal-Striving Stress and Depressive Symptoms among Rural Youth

• In Event: 343 - Section on Medical Sociology Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 12. Health in Adolescence and Early Adulthood

Abstract

Grounded in the stress process framework, goal-striving stress is hypothesized to serve as critical chronic stressor; however, little to no research has examined the relationship between goal-striving stress and depression among rural youth using this framework. Using longitudinal data from Waves II (2009) and IV (2013) of the Rural Youth Study (N=202), this paper proposes a “new” type of goal-striving stress of arguably unique importance to rural youth referred to as “residential goal-striving stress.” Defined as the chronic strain experienced by some rural youth resulting from high aspirations to remain in one’s rural community, but the inability to do so, residential goal-striving stress is a subjective, theoretically based and sample-specific measure based in response to the numerous critiques of prior goal-striving stress research. More specifically, this paper will examine the following two research questions: 1.) What is the relationship between residential goal-striving stress and depressive symptoms over time and 2.) Does the perception of discrimination or John Henryism mediate or moderate the relationship between residential goal-striving stress and depressive symptoms over time?
Analyses reveal a significant positive relationship between residential goal-striving stress and changes in depressive symptoms over time, net of key demographics, stressful life events, perception of discrimination, and John Henryism. Additionally they reveal that discrimination and John Henryism moderate the relationship between residential goal-striving stress and changes in depressive symptoms over a 5-year time period. The findings of this paper highlight the importance of this “new” type of goal-striving stress among rural youth—residential goal-striving stress.

Authors

• Meghan L. Mills, Birmingham Southern College

• Karen T Van Gundy, University of New Hampshire