1976 Adaptation to Economic Marginality

7/30/2019 1976 Adaptation to Economic Marginality

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Gretel H. PeltoAdaptation to Economic Marginality: A Psycho-social Model

Under pressure from a number of sources American anthropologists areincreasingly turning thl'Oirattention to the study of our own society. Thecrises of the cities and of interethnic conflict have, understandably, movedinto the foreground of concern, particularly since the demands for a "relevant"social science are most likely to come from city voices. But the rural hinterlands are part of our cultural scene and have their problems too. Marginalrural areas such as northern Minnesota-the focus of this research-are besetwith economic decline, out-migration and the resulting cultural and psychological depression in populations that feel they have been left out of themainstream of action.

A few years ago an extensive research project was initiated by the UpperMississippi Mental Health Center in northern Minnesota. The research program was practical and applied in its origins, since the clinical staff wantedto find out more about the populations they serve, especially the factors associated with the types of problems they were confronted with in their dailyroutines. At the same time they recognized that the answers to the questionsthey were asking involved relatively broad range theoretical research. Theresearch team, therefore, defined the problem as the generation of an empirically derived model of psychosocial adaptation in an economically depressed area.The Mental Health Center serves a five-county area in the "cut-over"region in the north-central part of Minnesota. The area has experienced asteadily worsening economic situation for several decades. In the mid-l960sit was characterized by low income (the median income in the research population was just over $3000 per year), high unemployment with significantseasonal fluctuations, and a declining population in which most young peopleleave as soon as they graduate from high school, if not before.

A series of communities was selected for study, chosen to represent therange of variation in the area in terms of economic affluence, degree oftourism, ethnic-religious background, and several other characteristics. Fieldworkers took up residence in the selected research communities in order togather ethnographic data through participant observation and informal inter-'Viewingtechniques. .The smallest of the communities, Ashville, isin the most serious conditionin terms of its economic position and future prospects. By Northern Min-

An original paper published with the permission of the author.


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lesota standards, the town is relatively heterogeneous in ethnic and religious;omposition. Ashville has experienced a steady decline in population since:he Depression; its bank has long since closed, many businesses have failedmd, recently, it has been threatened with the loss of its high school, whichs recognized by the people as the last remaining focus of community or~anization.The town of Solberg, with a population of 350 people, is next in size. Its a predominantly Norwegian-Lutheran community, and it was initially;elected for study as representative of the relatively prosperous communitiesn the area. Although many of its residents are faced with economic probems, the presence of a new sunflower seed processing plant is providing somelew wage labor opportunities, as well as increased incomes for farmers.Draketon is a community of approximately 800 people. The village has;ommercial, educational, recreational and political facilities serving a largemrrounding area of farming and logging people. Although it has a large:"'utheran population, the town is relatively mixed in ethnic and religious:omposition. The economic situations of Draketon's families range fromJoverty to affluence. In our sample the range is from a low of $700 dollars alear income, to a high of $15,000.

The largest of the four communities is a town of 1500 people. As is true}f Draketon, a few of James Lake's residents are well off, but the majority}f people have marginal or substandard incomes. Although the town is in;titutionally weil developed, with a village government, bank, newspaper,md many social clubs, it is also faced with many economic and social probems. Like all of the communities in the area, JamesLake has seen its popu.ation dwindle since the days of the "great boom" in the 19'20s.Sociocultural and psychological data were gathered from randomly selected;amples of households in each of the four communities. The socioculturalnformation was obtained by means of a lengthy structured interview. TheJsychological data were gathered with the MMPI (Minnesota MultiphasicPersonality Inventory).The MMPI is fairly wen known as a standard clinical instrument. The350 questions in the MMPI represent a distillation from a number of years}f empirical searching for items that discriminate particular, defined psychirtric populations as distinct from normal people. Although this instrument}asbeen used in a number of cross-cultural contexts, including Japan, Mexico,md Puerto Rico, anthropologists have been hesitant to use it since it is clear:hat the response norms, in terms of which the instrument is calibrated, are:elatively ethnocentrically loaded. However, we felt it to be appropriate in:he case of our research in No. Minnesota since the test was validated in\1innesota with a broad cross-section of respondents. We can also offer some:lirect contextual support for the validity of the instrument in No. Minnesota.[n a control group of persons who contacted the mental health center in therrea, for psychiatric help, MMPI responses are abnormal. The differenceJetween these people and the ordinary, nonpatient local population is clearly

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significant, and in the manner in which the constructors of the MMPI instrument say it should be.

In our analysis we used the standard. MMPI scales which measure therelative strengths of such characteristics as "depression," "paranoid tendencies," and "hysteria." We must emphasize that while the terminology ispsychiatric, we do not intend that these terms be interpreted as referring tomental illness. Rather, the characteristics described should be regarded aspsychological tendencies within the range of normal populations.The staff of the mental health center had formed the opinion that depression was a major psychological problem in the population. The resultsof the MMPI strongly support this impression. With minor exceptions, bothmen and women, in all four of the communities, have depression scores thatdeviate markedly from the Minnesota norms. By the standards establishedfor the MMPI, we would expect that three or four people in the researchsample to have depression scores above two standard deviations from themean. We find, in~tead, that eleven people in the sample have scores in thisrange.

A second distinctive characteristic that appears in the No. Minnesota population is what clinicians refer to as "hysteria." In the psychiatric handbooks,this psychological trait is described as including characteristics of "usingphysical symptoms as a means of solving difficult conflicts." TI1is resort tophysical disorder may appear only under stress. In addition, there is a tendency to deny troubles of any kind; there may also be denials of personalinadequacies and base impulses.

In another portion of research in the same area Stephen Schensul hasfound that, despite their cataloging of the economic and other deficiencies oflife in No. Minnesota, respondents rate their own self image as remarkablydose to their conceptualizations of the "ideal life."

Perhaps the classic expression of this mode of psychic adaptation washeard the morning after the 1968 presidential election when the losing candidate said, with tears in his eyes, "I don't feel bad, really .... "In these No. Minnesota respondents the hysteria scale shows a statisticallysignificant elevation for both males and females. This response is particularly

important among males (see Table 1).A basic hypothesis of our research was that a history of economic problemswould be associated with evidence of psychological problems, but we alsofelt that ethnic and religious affiliation as well as other factors would haveimportant effects on individuals' psychological states. Following the ideas ofother researchers concerning the importance, for mental health, of community"health," we felt that some of these northern communities would be moreconducive to psychiatric problems than others.As a first step in the data analysis, the interview materials-social, economic, and cultural variables-were factor-analyzed by means of a standardcomputerized procedure.

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-Table 1: MMPI Scale Means by Community and Sex *

ASHVILLE

SOLBERGRAKETONJAMES LAKEaleFemalealeemalealeemalealeemale5212627593681860863475952495357507631605992104966852529397541758# The mean for the Minnesota population used to validate the test is set at 50 for allcales.

The second, more important, step consisted of a stepwise multiple regression analysis, by means of which we would examine the relative predictiveefficacy of our battery of predictor variables as they affected individuals'MMPI depression scores. (See Tables 2 and 3.)The computer continued to calculate the equation, adding articulation (low);organizational participation (low); unemployed; and occupation (farmer), so thatthe final multiple R was .66. However, these additional variables each accountedfor less than one percent of the total variance and are not at a statistically reliablelevel.The computer continued to add several variables to the equation: income (low),occupation (farmer), religiosity (low), and M.S.L. (low), education (low), tobring the final multiple R to .82.

In the factor analysis, the first major factor reflects the dimension of "socio-

Table 2: Sociocultural Predictors of Depression in Women (N = 41)

VariableReligiosityLutheranNumber of siblings in the areaM.S.L.IncomeFamily cycleEducationScandinavianHousehold size

Direction ofAssociationLowYesNone/fewHighLowLateLowYesSmall

CumulativeMultipleCorrelation (R)

.38

.43.49.52

.55.61.62.63

.64



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Table 3: Sociocultural Predictors of Depression in Men (N = 31)

VariableArticulationPlace of residenceEmployment history-self-ratingBirthplaceSiblings in areaLutheranHousehold sizeAgeOrganizational participationPresent employment statusFamily cycleScandinavian

Direction ofAssociationLowIn town center

Much unemploymentIn the areaNone/fewYesSmallOlderLowUnemployedLateYes

CumulativeMultipleCorrelation (R)

.33.49.56

.61.66.68.70.72.74.76.77.78

economic success-failure," " including the variables of income, employment,material style of life, and apparently closely related variables of educationand articulation to the wider society. The multiple regression analysis showsthat, on the whole, there is a greater incidence of depressive responses fromthose people who are toward the low end of the range of variation of socioeconomic success. This association between poverty and psychological stressis congruent with the findings of a number of other studies, both urban andrural. Although people who are poor, unemployed, and without many material comforts tend to be morecIepressed-than--theirbetter-off neighbors,there are many other factors operating to produce psychological stress andthe magnitude of the statistical association between depression scores andthe economic variables is not extremely high. The correlations are on theorder of .30~.35.In the multiple regression analysis a second set of variables that are impor

tant in the prediction of depression involves aspects of "social marginality."People who live alone, who do not participate in community organizations,who have few or no relatives living nearby, and who apparently take lessinterest either in the events in their own community or in the outside world,are more likely to be depressed than those who are active community participants, and have frequent social contacts, including contact with children andrelatives. We should note that social marginality and socioeconomic successare not independent of each other. In fact, there is a fairly strong association* In using the term "socioeconomic success-failure" we are following the usage of peoplein the area who conceptualize economic concerns in terms of "success" or "failure." Theexpression does not imply anything about the "success:' of an individual in other aspectsof life, e.g., his/her "success" as a friend, neighbor, parent, etc.

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lmong many of these variables. In general, the people who have higher in~omes, steady jobs, a higher material life-style and more education are also.dive in community affairs and lead an active social life.A number of writers have commented on the depressive characteristics ofScandinavian-Lutheran culture, and we hypothesized that ethnic-religious

background would be a factor in predicting differential depression scores,5ince the area contains many people who have maintained some identity withtheir Scandinavian origins. Depressive tendencies did, in fact, appear morestrongly among the Scandinavians in the research population than in othergroups. People of Scandinavian-Lutheran background had higher depressionscores. Also, the homogeneous Norwegian-Lutheran community of Solbergappears consistently in the analyses as a "variable" associated with higher depreSSIOn.There are many interesting differences in the four communities which werethe focus of our research; but with the exception of Solberg, community of

residence does not appear to be particularly significant in explaining variation in depression. However, there are intercommunity differences in ratesof some of the other psychological measures, particularly in aggressivenessand "positiveness of outlook," Thus we feel that the factor-"community ofresidence"-must be included in the theoretical model.In all of the statistical analyses "religiosity" shows up persistently as an

important item; the direction of association is consistent-people who are"less religious" are more depressed! As operationalized in this research, "religiosity" includes measures of social participation as well as belief, and thevariable is also correlated with measures of socioeconomic success, but notwith religious denomination. While part of the association can be accountedfor in terms of these two major factors it would appear that "religiosity"in and of itself-acts as a buffer against psychological tension and helps toease the stressful effects of living in an economically depressed area.From the statistical analyses we have built a tentative model of psycho~social adaptation in the area which involves four main components that, in

interaction, appear to have strong effects on "individual psychological wellbeing." These components are (1) socioeconomic success-failure, (2) socialmarginality-centrality, (3) cultural ideology, and (4) community of residence. In this research we conceptualized psychological state as a dependentvariable and examined the effects of a number of independent variables.While we feel that "causal arrows" can be drawn-as in Diagram A-it isalso clear that there is an interactive effect. People who suffer ham psychological problems are, no doubt, more likely to' experience economic failureand to withdraw from social contact, for example.The variables analyzed in our research account for only 35-45% of thetotal variance in depression. Clearly, a nurriber of other kinds of variables

need to be incorporated into the model in order to enhance its predictivevalue. Some of the missing variables are well known. Tiley include experiences of childhood, cohesion of natal family, and situational mishaps. The



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addition of those variables would not, we feel, detract from the significanceof the sociocultural elements that have been the focus of this research.

DOMAINS OF FACTORS AFFECTING PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING

Income

Ma terial-style-of-life

Psychologicalwell-being

Religiosity

Articulation

Education

Employment stability

Occupation

Organizational participation

Socio-economicSuccess-Failure

Family life cycleSocialCentralityMarginality Age

depression

CulturalIdeological

Household sizeSiblings in area

Rural YS. town residence

Birthplace

"Ethnic identity

Religious affiliation

Community of residence

DIAGRAM A


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In seeking to develop a model for predicting levels of psychosocial adaptation or "well-being" in marginal rural areas such as northern Minnesota wefeel that many different kinds of economic, social and cultural factors needto be taken into consideration. There are many simple, one-variable modelsthat concentrate on a single factor such as childhood experience, social integration of communities or class stratification. Each has "tapped" into aportion of the variation in psychological states; but each such single factorexplanation, taken by itself, accounts for only a small proportion of the phenomena. To develop really effective predictive models, we must examine theinteractions among an array of variables.In this research, we placed a heavy emphasis on the materialistic variables

of socioeconomic success, but we did not neglect to consider relatively nonmaterialistic sociocultural elements. The theoretical implications of ourfindings are that a psychosocial model must include both material and nonmaterial factors.The relative weights of the significant predictive factors may vary from

one behavioral setting or community to another, so that the shape of ourmultifactor model may take on quite different proportions under differentcircumstances, without changing its essential nature or its predictive power.The model we are working with has implications for social science theory,and we hope to develop these through further research. But it should be clearthat a major aim of research of this type is to provide analyses which areuseful for community mental health centers and other agencies concernedwith the social and psychological well-being of people.

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1976 Adaptation to Economic Marginality