IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ariqol/v18y2023i4d10.1007_s11482-023-10155-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social Isolation, Healthy Habits, Inequality and Mental Health in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Ignacio Amate-Fortes

    (University of Almeria)

  • Almudena Guarnido-Rueda

    (University of Almeria)

  • Diego Martínez-Navarro

    (University of Almeria)

  • Francisco J. Oliver-Márquez

    (University of Almeria)

Abstract

The objective of this work is to deepen the analysis of the socioeconomic determinants of mental health, paying special attention to the impact of inequality, not only in income distribution but also in gender, racial, health and education inequality, social isolation, including new variables to measure loneliness, and healthy habits, on the mental health status. For this purpose, a cross-sectional model for a sample of 2735 counties in the United States is estimated using Ordinary Least Squares in its robust version to solve the detected heteroscedasticity problems. The results obtained show that inequality, social isolation and certain lifestyles, such as smoking or insomnia, are detrimental to mental health, while sexual activity prevents mental distress. On the other hand, poor counties suffer more cases of suicide, with food insecurity being the main problem for mental health. Finally, we found detrimental effects of pollution on mental health.

Suggested Citation

  • Ignacio Amate-Fortes & Almudena Guarnido-Rueda & Diego Martínez-Navarro & Francisco J. Oliver-Márquez, 2023. "Social Isolation, Healthy Habits, Inequality and Mental Health in the United States," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 1617-1643, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ariqol:v:18:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s11482-023-10155-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s11482-023-10155-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11482-023-10155-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11482-023-10155-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Colantone, Italo & Crinò, Rosario & Ogliari, Laura, 2019. "Globalization and mental distress," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 181-207.
    2. Wallace, S. & Nazroo, J. & Bécares, L., 2016. "Cumulative effect of racial discrimination on the mental health of ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 106(7), pages 1294-1300.
    3. Almedom, Astier M., 2005. "Social capital and mental health: An interdisciplinary review of primary evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 943-964, September.
    4. Jiang, Wei & Lu, Yi & Xie, Huihua, 2020. "Education and mental health: Evidence and mechanisms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 407-437.
    5. Matthew W. Ridley & Gautam Rao & Frank Schilbach & Vikram H. Patel, 2020. "Poverty, Depression, and Anxiety: Causal Evidence and Mechanisms," NBER Working Papers 27157, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Seulkee Heo & Whanhee Lee & Michelle L. Bell, 2021. "Suicide and Associations with Air Pollution and Ambient Temperature: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-21, July.
    7. Ohrnberger, Julius & Fichera, Eleonora & Sutton, Matt, 2017. "The relationship between physical and mental health: A mediation analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 42-49.
    8. Marta Golin, 2022. "The effect of broadband Internet on the gender gap in mental health: Evidence from Germany," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(S2), pages 6-21, October.
    9. Shuai Chen & Paulina Oliva & Peng Zhang, 2018. "Air Pollution and Mental Health: Evidence from China," NBER Working Papers 24686, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Nicholas Rohde & Ross Guest, 2013. "Multidimensional Racial Inequality in the United States," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 591-605, November.
    11. Pickett, Kate E. & Wilkinson, Richard G., 2015. "Income inequality and health: A causal review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 316-326.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Samuli Koponen & Antti Kouvo, 2024. "The Mediating Role of Perception of Society Between Income Inequality and Life Satisfaction. Insights from the European Social Survey," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 19(5), pages 2847-2869, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fjolla Kondirolli & Naveen Sunder, 2022. "Mental health effects of education," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(S2), pages 22-39, October.
    2. Grossmann, Volker & Strulik, Holger, 2021. "Illicit drugs and the decline of the middle class," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 718-743.
    3. Li, Yanan & Sunder, Naveen, 2024. "Distributional effects of education on mental health," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    4. Manal M. Alqahtani, 2024. "Evaluation of the effectiveness of social support programs in improving the quality of life of underserved communities," Journal of Community Positive Practices, Catalactica NGO, issue 2, pages 95-114.
    5. Richard Freund, 2023. "From drought to distress: unpacking the mental health effects of water scarcity," CSAE Working Paper Series 2023-07, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    6. van der Wal, J.M. & Huth, K.B.S. & Lok, A. & Bockting, C.L. & Stronks, K. & Nicolaou, M., 2024. "Exploring the mechanisms underlying increased risk of depressive disorder in ethnic minority populations in Europe: A causal loop diagram," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 351(C).
    7. Kang, Songman & Son, Hyelim & Song, B.K., 2023. "The effect of housing price inequality on mental health," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    8. Kristoffersen, Ingebjørg & Hoang, Dan & Li, Ian W., 2024. "Understanding the mental health-based poverty trap: Dynamics in psychological distress and financial precariousness, and the role of self-efficacy," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    9. Simandan, Dragos, 2018. "Rethinking the health consequences of social class and social mobility," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 258-261.
    10. Jiru Song & Mingzheng Hu & Shaojie Li & Xin Ye, 2023. "The Impact Mechanism of Household Financial Debt on Physical Health in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-13, March.
    11. Hongyun Zheng & Wanglin Ma & Junpeng Li & Julio Botero, 2023. "Relationship between Internet Use and Negative Affect," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 1693-1713, August.
    12. Zhizhong Liu & Guangyue Liu & Xu Han & Yingna Chen, 2022. "Green Technology of Foreign Direct Investment on Public Health: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-16, October.
    13. Abeliansky, Ana Lucia & Beulmann, Matthias & Prettner, Klaus, 2024. "Are they coming for us? Industrial robots and the mental health of workers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(3).
    14. Haobin Fan & Xuanyi Nie, 2020. "Impacts of Layoffs and Government Assistance on Mental Health during COVID-19: An Evidence-Based Study of the United States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-23, September.
    15. Shouchuang Zhang & Ting Wang & Lanyue Zhang & Yuehui Wei & Weiyan Jian & Jing Guo, 2024. "Relationship between social inequality perception patterns and depressive symptoms among Chinese adults: A national representative longitudinal study," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 70(5), pages 933-944, August.
    16. Oded Stark & Wiktor Budzinski, 2021. "A social‐psychological reconstruction of Amartya Sen’s measures of inequality and social welfare," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(4), pages 552-566, November.
    17. Yayun Ren & Jian Yu & Guanglai Zhang & Chang Zhang & Wenmei Liao, 2023. "The Short- and Long-Run Impacts of Air Pollution on Human Health: New Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-23, January.
    18. Su, Yuandong & Lu, Xinjie & Zeng, Qing & Huang, Dengshi, 2022. "Good air quality and stock market returns," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    19. Xiaobao Li & Houchao Lyu, 2022. "Social Status and Subjective Well-Being in Chinese Adults: Mediating Effect of Future Time Perspective," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(4), pages 2101-2116, August.
    20. Chen, Yi & Zhao, Yi, 2022. "The timing of first marriage and subsequent life outcomes: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 713-731.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mental health; Suicide; Inequality; Social isolation; Healthy habits;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ariqol:v:18:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s11482-023-10155-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.