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Anomia, socioeconomic status, and mental disturbance

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Abstract

Utilizing the 22-ltem Mental Health Scale developed by the staff of the Midtown Manhattan Project, the mental health status of a sample of 900 married women residing in a Western state is examined. The concern is with further investigation of prior research findings regarding associations between anomia, social class variables, and psychiatric impairment. The findings indicate that subjects' feelings of anomia maintain a significant relationship with psychiatric impairment within each socioeconomic category investigated. Data further reveal that the proportion of subjects reporting psychiatric symptomatology decreases with increasing status but that the relative risk of such symptoms for highly anomic respondents (compared to nonanomic subjects within each category) is much higher for the highest status groups than for the lower groups.

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Reinhardt, A.M., Gray, R.M. Anomia, socioeconomic status, and mental disturbance. Community Ment Health J 8, 109–119 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01457164

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