Robert J Johnson

University of Miami | UM · Department of Sociology

Although numerous studies highlight the social, psychological, and physiological significance of life stages based on specific ages, little scholarly attention has been devoted to identifying factors that distinguish the stage prior to death. Instead of conceptualizing the life course as stages delineated by specific ages, our study explores the ch...

During wartime, individuals suffer from high levels of mental health disorders, with depression being one of the most common mental health issues. Even as peace returns, the loss of personal, social, and emotional resources can make widespread depression difficult to overcome. Internally displaced people (IDPs) are a particularly vulnerable group,...

IntroductionWar in Ukraine started in March 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea and continues today in the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine. Over 1.5 million people in these regions have been displaced from their homes. We conducted this study 36 months after the conflict began and interviewed civilians residing in Ukraine.PurposeThis study examines t...

Sometimes nations at war have the support of their citizens, at other times, civilians with little tolerance for human casualties and violence demand peaceful solutions. This study examines why moral attitudes can erode during violent conflicts and what factors may explain how it happens. Using a random sample of civilians in a vulnerable lower- an...

This study uses survey data from multi-stage stratified random samples of adults from two large Ukrainian cities to examine and specify associations between war exposure and the likelihood of committing violent acts against another person. Findings from regression models reveal that both direct and vicarious war exposure predict projected interpers...

In this paper, we employed data from the 2011 Miami-Dade Health Survey (n = 444) to formally test whether the association between religious struggles and psychological distress is mediated by psychosocial resources. We found that religious struggles were associated with lower levels of social support, self-esteem, the sense of control, and self-con...

Although numerous studies have shown that religious attendance is associated with greater social support, concerns remain about selection into religious attendance and more supportive relationships. In this paper, we employ data collected from the 2011 Miami-Dade Health Survey (n = 444) to assess the extent to which the association between religiou...

This study examines the extent to which ethnic identity is a protective factor and buffers the stress of discrimination among the foreign born compared to the U.S. born in Miami-Dade County. Data were drawn from the 2011 Miami-Dade Health Survey (N = 444), which is a countywide probability sample of adults in South Florida. Two interaction effects...

A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health - edited by Teresa L. Scheid June 2017

Cambridge Core - Sociology of Science and Medicine - A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health - edited by Teresa L. Scheid

Although numerous studies have shown that discrimination contributes to poorer mental health, the precise mechanisms underlying this association are not well understood. In this paper, we consider the possibility that the association between day-to-day discrimination (being disrespected, insulted, and harassed) and depressive symptoms is partially...

This study uses data collected through the 2011 Miami-Dade Health Survey (n = 444) to test whether religious involvement is associated with three distinct control beliefs. Regression results suggest that people who exhibit high levels of religious involvement tend to report higher levels of the sense of control, self-control, and the health locus o...

This study uses data collected through the 2011 Miami-Dade Health Survey (n = 444) to test whether religious involvement is associated with three distinct control beliefs. Regression results suggest that people who exhibit high levels of religious involvement tend to report higher levels of the sense of control, self-control, and the health locus o...

In the early 1980s sociology witnessed the leading crest of a wave of new and noteworthy research in the sociology of mental health that helped raise the American Sociological Association’s (ASA) Journal of Health and Social Behavior (JHSB) to the highest levels of scholarly impact up to that time and later help launch a new Section of the Sociolog...

Social psychological perspectives on deviance provide discussions of the nature of deviance and explanations of the definition, antecedents, or consequences of deviance that implicate both personal (behavioral or intrapsychic) and social (interpersonal, group, macrosocial) structures and processes. In this chapter we draw on empirical research and...

Terrorism has long occupied a place in human history (e.g. Tiberius and Caligula in ancient Rome, Spanish Inquisition, Salem Witch Trials, France’s Reign of Terror, the Irish Republicans), yet we have only recently begun to systematically investigate its effects on our mental and physical health, largely as a result of the four September 11th attac...

This is the first study to investigate how actively engaged and vigorous people remain in their life tasks in the midst of chronic exposure to significant traumatic events. We sought to identify risk and protective factors for engagement within the context of ongoing exposure to political violence and social upheaval. We randomly identified and int...

The present study aimed to investigate the prevalence of self-reported impairment (Criterion F) as part of a probable DSM-IV diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) within a sample of 1001 Israeli Jews subjected to direct and indirect exposure to rocket attacks. Further, the present study aimed to investigate predictors of endorsing postt...

We evaluated the accuracy of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression (MD) diagnoses using brief assessment instruments conducted by phone. PTSD and MD were assessed by telephone interview in a randomly selected sample of Jewish and Palestinian residents of Jerusalem (N = 150) during a period of marked threat of terrorism and war....

This is the first study of the relationship between being exposed to traumatic conditions and, yet, remaining engaged in life tasks and vigorous. A national random sample of adult residents (n=1,196) of the Palestinian Authority were interviewed in person in a three-wave longitudinal study: (1) September–October 2007, (2) April–May 2008, and (3) Oc...

We evaluated the accuracy of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression (MD) diagnoses using brief assessment instruments conducted by phone. PTSD and MD were assessed by telephone interview in a randomly selected sample of Jewish and Palestinian residents of Jerusalem (N � 150) during a period of marked threat of terrorism and war....

To estimate the prevalence of, and to identify correlates of clinically significant sleep problems in adult Israeli citizens exposed to chronic terrorism and war trauma or threat thereof. A population-based, cross-sectional study of 1001 adult Israeli citizens interviewed by phone between July 15 and August 26, 2008. The phone survey was conducted...

Little is known about the impact of traumatic experiences and stressful life conditions on people in low-income countries who live in conditions of ongoing political violence. In order to determine the prevalence and predictors of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression (MD) among Palestinians subjected to chronic political viole...

Posttraumatic growth (PTG)-deriving benefits following potentially traumatic events-has become a topic of increasing interest. We examined factors that were related to self-reported PTG, and the relationship between PTG and symptoms of post-traumatic stress (PTS) following the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah. Drawing from a national random sample of Israel,...

Although numerous studies have documented the long-term effects of childhood victimization on mental health in adulthood, few have directly examined potential mediators and moderators of this association. Using data from the Welfare, Children, and Families project (1999)-a probability sample of 2,402 predominantly black and Hispanic low-income wome...

In the first prospective study, to our knowledge, of the impact of ongoing terrorism and political violence, we analyzed nationally representative data from 560 Jews and 182 Arabs in Israel over a 6-month period. Based on Conservation of Resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989, 1998), we predicted that exposure to terrorism and political violence wou...

Effects of terrorism on mental health are examined in this chapter by Robert J. Johnson and Stevan E. Hobfoll. After first defining terrorism, the chapter provides a chronological review of the literature on terrorism and mental health over the past few decades. Although some terrorist attacks widely covered by the media did produce a few studies,...

A study examining the effects of terrorism on a national sample of 1,136 Jewish adults was conducted in Israel via telephone surveys, during the Second Intifada. The relationship between reports of positive changes occurring subsequent to terrorism exposure (i.e., Benefit finding), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity, and negative...

This study analyses the antecedents of exclusionist political attitudes towards Palestinian citizens of Israel among Israeli immigrants from the former Soviet Union in comparison to Old Jewish Israelis (OJI). A large-scale study of exclusionist political attitudes was conducted in the face of ongoing terrorism in Israel through telephone surveys ca...

This is the 1st longitudinal examination of trajectories of resilience and resistance (rather than ill-being) among a national sample under ongoing threat of mass casualty. The authors interviewed a nationally representative sample of Jews and Arabs in Israel (N = 709) at 2 times during a period of terrorist and rocket attacks (2004–2005). The resi...

comparative politics, psychology of mass political behavior, survey research, and the politics of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Her recent work focuses on the role of religion and authoritarianism and their effects on support for democratic values; psychosocial determinants of political extremism, xenophobia, and exclusionary reactions to minorities;...

Although there is abundant evidence that mass traumas are associated with adverse mental health consequences, few studies have used nationally representative samples to examine the impact of war on civilians, and none have examined the impact of the Israel-Hezbollah War, which involved unprecedented levels of civilian trauma exposure from July 12 t...

Israel has faced ongoing terrorism since the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada in September 2000. The authors examined risk and resiliency factors associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among 1,117 Jews and 394 Arab adult citizens of Israel during August and September 2004 through telephone interviews. Probable PTSD was found among 6....

The Israeli government's decision to remove settlers in the Gaza Strip forcibly produced a situation of traumatic stress, resulting from confrontation and conflict for settlers. The authors examined the effects of the Gaza disengagement, that occurred following prolonged terrorist exposure, on rates of probable major depressive disorder (MDD) and p...

In this exploratory study, 77 informal caregivers of older persons in Ohio completed telephone interviews that included questions regarding their perceived difficulty providing emotional and physical care, perceived quality of care, demographic items including caregivers' health status, and a measure of their psychological well-being. Findings sugg...

Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/58013/1/Hall et al., 2008.pdf

Recent studies related to global terrorism have suggested the potential of posttraumatic growth (PTG) following experiences of terror exposure. However, investigations of whether psychological distress is reduced or increased by PTG in other trauma contexts have been inconsistent. Results from our studies conducted in New York following the attacks...

We respond to the commentators who raise several key issues. Points of agreement include the need to incorporate several new concepts within the broader umbrella of posttraumatic growth (PTG), a need to understand more of the context under which PTG might have positive, negative, or limited influence, and a need to understand aspects of persons and...

This retrospective, cross-sectional study explored the hypothesis that multiple forms of child abuse and neglect (child multi-type maltreatment; CMM) would be associated with women's lower social support and higher stress in adulthood, and that this, in turn, would amplify their vulnerability to symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress disor...

The authors conducted a large-scale study of terrorism in Israel via telephone surveys in September 2003 with 905 adult Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel (PCIs). Structural equation path modeling indicated that exposure to terrorism was significantly related to greater loss and gain of psychosocial resources and to greater posttraumatic str...

This study examines the extent of informal help received in the home among the respondents to the Longitudinal Study on Aging. The focus is on the direct effects of health status on receiving informal help for activities of daily living (ADLs) and how receiving that informal help is influenced by proximity to death. The findings show that proximity...

Reports errors in the original article by S. E. Hobfoll et al (Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 2003[Mar], Vol 84[3], 632-643). On page 643, in the tables for Appendixes B and C, the variables labeled with "T3" should all read "T2." In Appendix C, the column headings "Nonlinear model" should read "Nonlinear model T1"; the column headings...

The authors examined a dynamic conceptualization of stress by investigating how economic stress, measured in terms of material loss, alters women's personal and social resources and how these changed resources impact anger and depressive mood. Resource change in women's mastery and social support over 9 months was significantly associated with chan...

Part I: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to the Study of Deviant Behavior. 1. A Theory of Deviant Behavior. 2. Method. Part II: Deviant Behavior in Adolescence. 3. An Elaboration Strategy for the Study of Deviant Behavior. 4. Gender as a Moderator in Explanations of Adolescent Deviance. 5. Race/Ethnicity as a Moderator in Explanations of A...

A primary prevention, behavioral intervention designed to reduce HIV risk behavior was tested in a randomized, controlled trial with single, inner-city women. A total of 935 women were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: a small group, 6-session communally oriented HIV prevention intervention; a yoked general health promotion intervention contr...

A primary prevention, behavioral intervention designed to reduce HIV risk behavior was tested in a randomized, controlled trial with single, inner-city women. A total of 935 women were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: a small group, 6-session communally oriented HIV prevention intervention; a yoked general health promotion intervention contr...

The impact of perceived child abuse history on 160 adult, Native American women's emotional well-being (i.e., depressive mood and anger) and AIDS risk was examined. How sense of mastery and social support might lead to women's greater resiliency was also investigated. Child physical-emotional abuse was found to have greater impact on depressive moo...

Almost without exception, studies that address adolescent delinquency or young adult deviance conclude that males commit more acts of deviance than females. This finding is very likely true, particularly when we consider traditional notions of delinquency and deviance to include such acts as theft, interpersonal aggression, other acts of violence,...

Data were obtained from a longitudinal study of seventh grade students tested up to three times at annual intervals during the junior high school years (Time 1 through 3) and once as young adults (Time 4). The panel is a random half of all seventh grade students in the Houston Independent School District in 1971. The total sample size of this panel...

The analyses reported in Chapters 3–7 are informed by a general theory of deviant behavior. The theory specifies mutually influential antecedents and consequences of motivations for deviant behavior, the acting out of deviant dispositions, and the continuity/discontinuity of deviant behavior. This first chapter describes the theory and places the t...

The same general models that were estimated for males and females during adolescence are estimated to examine the moderating influence of gender in explaining young adult deviance.

The theoretical statements, methods, and empirical analyses reported in this volume are not presented as the state of our current understanding of the causes of deviant behavior, but rather are presented as a template for a useful logic of procedure for increasing our understanding of deviant behavior. Starting with a guiding theoretical framework...

Several good theoretical rationales could be offered that suggest moderating effects of race/ethnicity on the parameter estimates in the model. This is the case for both the measurement and structural equation portions of the previously estimated model. For example, Matsueda and Heimer (1987) suggest that when considering control theory it is possi...

We estimate four models specifying aspects of an increasingly more inclusive multivariate explanation of deviant behavior. The practice of including additional constructs in each sequential model is an elaboration strategy we adopted for several reasons. First, the elaboration strategy begins with baseline models that are relatively simple, which p...

This chapter examines the development of deviant behavior among adolescents as they mature into young adulthood, applying the same models we developed to explain adolescent deviant behavior.

We model the effects of disability, functional limitation, and receipt of help on perceived health. This analysis specifies a model with two dimensions of disability and three dimensions of functional limitation, including upper body disability, lower body disability, basic activities of daily living (ADLs), household ADLs, and advanced ADLs. The l...

We examined the multiaxial model of coping using the dispositional or general version of the Strategic Approach to Coping Scale (SACS) and the situational version of the SACS, in Part 2 of this two-part series. We found both dispositional and situational measures to be reliable and that dispositional coping was a strong predictor of situational cop...

The influence of antisocial and prosocial copingon the acquisition of social support and on subsequentpsychological distress among 67 male and 47 femalepostal employees was examined allowing genderdifferences in coping to be studied in a single worksetting. Seventy seven percent of the respondents wereEuropean American, 18% were African American, a...

A multiaxial model of coping and instrument were developed to explore communal aspects of coping and move beyond the current individualistic perspective. The model suggests that coping strategies differ on level of activity, prosocial and antisocial demeanor, and directness. Individualistic models of coping tend to ignore the social aspects of copi...

Activities of daily living (ADLs), instrumental ADLs, and disability markers have traditionally been the most common indicators of functional status. The study on Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (AHEAD) is used to replicate a five-dimensional measurement model composed of these observable indicators among the older adult self-respond...

This study uses a previously validated model of disease, disability, functional limitations, and perceived health to predict the use of long-term care (LTC) services in and out of the home. The focus is on (a) the direct effects of the structure of health status on the use of LTC services, (b) how the use of LTC services differs by race and sex, an...

Consistency and change between 1984 and the last reinterview (either two, four, or six years later) on 22 individual functional status markers and the five summary scales that they form are examined among the 5,986 members of the Longitudinal Study on Aging who were reinterviewed at least once. At baseline, at least three-fifths of the respondents...

This research examines three relatively unexplored questions about the effects of role socialization on the initiation of cocaine use: (1) What are the effects of adult social roles on the initiation of cocaine use? (2) What are the effects of the life-course timing of entry into adult social roles on the initiation of cocaine use? and (3) What are...

Medicare claims data are used to model hospital utilization patterns for the 4,660 survivors and 2,867 decedents of the Longitudinal Study on Aging (LSOA). When the volume of hospital utilization was collapsed into four categories based on the mean annual number of hospital episodes and consistency was defined as a maximum absolute deviation from t...

Although much is known from cross-sectional studies about the use of physician services among older adults, little is known about the consistency of or changes in that utilization over time. Hierarchical multivariable regression analysis of data on the 2,430 older adults who were enrolled in the LSOA and successfully reinterviewed in 1986, 1988, an...

After linking their administrative records and interview data, the consumption of Medicare-reimbursed hospital resources during 1984 through 1990 by the 7,527 LSOA respondents was prospectively assessed using a two-part design. First, logistic regression was used to model whether a hospital episode occurred. Second, among those having had hospital...

A previously developed model of disease, disability, functional limitation, and perceived health was examined for race and/or gender biases. This model focuses on (a) the direct effects of three factors on perceived health status, (b) how disability, functional limitations, and self-rated health interrelate, and (c) how race and gender condition th...

We examined Israelis' reactions to the Gulf War and SCUD missile attacks. Four national samples of Israelis (n = 3,204) were interviewed as to depressive mood on four occasions--prior to the Gulf Crisis, as the war approached, during the SCUD missile attacks, and after cessation of hostilities. There was an expected increase in depressive mood duri...

This article builds on earlier conceptualizations of the structure of health status to propose a more complex, multiequation model that examines the interrelationships among its various dimensions. As such, the focus is not merely on the identification of the direct effects of a variety of factors on perceived health status, but on how the construc...

This research examined the effects of changes in functional status on the risks for subsequent nursing home placement and death. Using data on the 3,646 baseline self-respondents to the Longitudinal Study on Aging who were successfully reinterviewed at the first follow-up (1986) and who were not in a nursing home at that time, a two-stage analysis...

Examined the relationships among social support knowledge, supportive behavior, intimacy with one's spouse, and satisfaction with support provided by one's spouse among 41 Israeli kibbutz couples. The hypothesis that support knowledge and support behavior influence the intimacy between couples and increase satisfaction with spouse's social support...

This article separately examines the relationship of perceived health status and mortality for the 1,599 men and 2,904 women self-respondents in the Longitudinal Study on Aging. Using hierarchical logistic regression, the zeroorder relationships are decomposed by the serial introduction of demographic, socioeconomic, health status, and psychosocial...

This article examines the effects of the characteristics specified in the behavioral model of health services utilization and measured at baseline on the subsequent risk of nursing home placement and death within four years. Analyses of the 5,151 respondents in the longitudinal study on aging indicate that the risk for nursing home placement is gre...

In this study, data from the Longitudinal Study on Aging were used to prospectively assess the relationship between repetitive falling or falling only once in the year before baseline and changes in health status and the use of health services. Multiple and logistic regression were used to control for a variety of known covariates, in addition to t...

The theoretical position of this chapter is that different persons (e.g., men and women) with different personalities and behavioral experiences of social circumstances have different levels of vulnerability to causes of drug abuse and addiction examined circumstances surrounding initial illicit drug use for their effects on escalation of use / c...

Using data from the LSOA, we examined the relationship between widowhood, health status, and the use of health services. Controlling for the characteristics specified in the behavioral model, a cross-sectional assessment of the 2,354 respondents widowed at baseline showed that regardless of how the recency of widowhood is modeled, it is not related...

Using baseline data on the 5,151 respondents surveyed as part of the panel design of the Longitudinal Study on Aging (LSOA), this article estimates, cross-sectionally, the relationships hypothesized in the behavioral model of health services utilization. In addition to the traditional indicators of the predisposing, enabling, and need characteristi...

The article presents negative social sanctions which is modeled as a consequence of prior deviance, and as having direct, and indirect effects on later deviance. The model is estimated using LISREL VI on data from a three-wave panel of junior high school students (N = 2,549). Social sanctions are reactions by others to the real or imagined behavior...

The Journal of Health and Social Behavior (JHSB) is examined to determine its relative stature and impact in the social science community. We conducted both empirical comparisons of average impact (based on the Social Science Citation Index) and content analysis. Over an 11-year period beginning in 1977, JHSB has maintained an enviable position amo...

We integrate aspects of coping response, impaired ability, and motivational explanations for the causes and consequences of drug abuse, all which were cast previously as competing or alternative paradigms. We projected a model of 1) continual daily drug use as a consequence of early adolescent psychological symptoms and 2) continual daily drug use...

PIP This study models culture of poverty explanations, earlier experiences that tend to restrict opportunities, demographic effects representing differential rates of participation by social groups, and health and marijuana use variables indicating the influence of individual life- style differences as predictors of the rate of labor market entry,...

We report a series of analyses designed to estimate increasingly elaborated theoretical models that explain adolescent drug use. Each of the successive elaborations adds a theoretical construct to the explanatory model in order to increase our understanding of drug use by specifying in greater detail the nature of the structural relationships among...

A structural equations model is applied to latent constructs of resources, role strain, symptoms, and elements of the sick role. Recursive effects were tested along with alternative assumptions of causal ordering among these constructs in the cross-sectional analysis of 2,500 young adults. Role strain was found to have direct effects on adopting th...

We test the hypothesized effects of aggression on observed higher treatment rates for male than female adolescents over three waves of a panel. On the assumption that treatment is a social control response to deviant behavior, including aggression, we hypothesize that higher treatment rates for males are accounted for by higher rates of aggression...

In an earlier analysis we estimated a model in which later deviance was explained by the direct positive effects of disposition to deviance and early deviance, the direct negative effect of self-rejection, and the indirect positive effects of self-rejection and early deviance. This analysis estimates and elaborated model which specifies, in additio...

Building upon a critical evaluation of the sociologically relevant literature dealing with AIDS, we offer methodological suggestions and outlines of substantive models that promise to address two limitations in the exisiting literature: the limited range of variables that are considered relevant, and the absence of theoretical guides that specify t...