Corrigall, J., Lund, C., Patel, V., Plagerson, S., & Funk, M. (2008). Poverty and mental illness: Fact or fiction? A commentary on das, do, friedman, McKenzie & scott (65:3, 2007, 467-480). Social Science & Medicine, 66, 2061-2063. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.01.005 Recently, an article was published in this journal, describing that poverty is not identified as an important determinant of mental illness in developing countries. Data was collected from five developing countries to interpret this information. However, the article I have observed explains …show more content…
Parental socioeconomic status can strongly influence adolescent exposure to stress and access to resources such as extra-curricular activities, education assistance, etc. Neighbourhood context can be linked to poverty with early childbearing and academic problems. Poverty leads to social isolation, which generates socialization practices and family lifestyles, which can affect psychological conflicts, contributing to academic failure. Interviews were conducted with 877 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 years. Depression and anxiety was assessed using adolescent self-report, who had high rates among the participants, especially those living below the income level, and were considered in poverty. This study did not just take into account the neighbourhood and income level, but also, the number of household members, the number of incomes, whether it was a single parent home, or not. The results link the structure of residential neighborhoods to mental health of adolescents living within those …show more content…
Research conducted reflects that low income and low socioeconomic status are associated with high rates of mental disorders. Women and minorities suffer significantly higher rates of mental disorders, such as depression, which can cause living in poverty among these populations. However, diagnosis of depression among women can also be caused due to unemployment, or income reduction. Poor women are exposed more to crime and violence, to the illness and death of children, and to imprisonment of husbands, which can substantiate higher rates of mental illness among