Role strain and symptoms in a group of Pakistani immigrant women.
Item
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Title
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Role strain and symptoms in a group of Pakistani immigrant women.
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Identifier
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AAI9807950
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identifier
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9807950
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Creator
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Karasz, Alison Katharina.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Paul Wachtel
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Date
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1997
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Clinical | Anthropology, Cultural | Women's Studies | Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies
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Abstract
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This study of a group of Pakistani immigrant women utilizes both quantitative and qualitative methodology in its examination of the relationship between marital role strain, symptoms, and the capacity for feminist protest. Analyses of participant observation, interview and questionnaire data indicate a strong link between marital role strain and symptoms in wives. Though the study participants evidenced an elaborated concept of depressive illness as a result of marital problems, it was found that this concept is by no means identical to the concept of depression represented in contemporary psychiatric nosology. A factor analysis of the Brief Symptom Index, a standard measure of psychopathology in western societies, resulted in a factor structure very different from that which emerged in the normative studies of this measure. Further analyses of this measure, together with a set of culture-specific somatic symptoms, resulted in a factor structure representing typical South Asian "idioms of distress" described in the literature. It was found that somatic symptoms were a better predictor of marital role strain than psychological symptoms.;Another area of investigation was the issue of "feminist protest" as described by Levy (1976). It was found that a woman's tendency to engage in a feminist critique, whether of powerful members of her social network or of unjust community norms, appears to affect the type of symptoms through which she manifests distress. Feminist women tend to express distress through depressive or other psychological symptoms, while more conservative women manifest distress through somatic symptoms. It is hypothesized that this difference in symptom preference is due to the relatively greater potential of psychological symptoms for social disruption. Other factors important in the relationship between role strain and symptoms include the access to feminine support networks and the wife's economic and emotional dependence on her husband.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
