The deleterious mental health effects associated with the COVID‐19 pandemic are increasingly apparent, however, questions remain about the extent to which pandemic‐related stressor exposure has contributed to increased psychological distress among an already disadvantaged group, individuals with disabilities. The first aim of the study was to examine the distribution of pandemic‐related stressors across multiple dimensions—employment, personal and family finances, personal relationships, and quality of social life—among individuals with and without disabilities. The second aim of the study was to examine the association between a composite COVID‐19 stressor score and two mental health outcomes—depressive and anxiety symptoms—among the two subsamples. The study used quota‐based online survey data ( N = 2043) collected in the summer of 2020 from adults (18 and older) residing in the Intermountain West, half of whom had a self‐reported disability. Study results demonstrated that individuals with disabilities experienced pandemic‐related stressors at significantly higher rates relative to their non‐disabled counterparts. Further, pandemic stressor exposure was associated with greater negative effects on their psychological well‐being. We argue that the COVID‐19 pandemic is generating a secondary mental illness pandemic, and that individuals with disabilities are affected by it at significantly higher proportions.

This article assesses the prevalence and risk factors of domestic violence in India. The study uses the 2005-2006 India National Family Health Survey-III (NFHS-III) and focuses on the 69,484 ever-married women ages 15 to 49 from all regions, who were administered the domestic violence module. The results show that 31% of respondents experienced physical violence in the past 12 months before the survey; the corresponding figure for sexual violence was 8.3%. The multivariate logistic regression results show key determinants of physical and sexual violence. Some of the most salient findings are that urban residence, household wealth, affiliation with Christian religious denominations, wife's age at marriage and education are associated with lower risk of physical and sexual violence. In contrast, being employed and being the wife of a man who drank alcohol increased the odds of experiencing both physical and sexual violence. Moreover, respondents who believed that wife-beating was justified under certain circumstances were more likely to experience domestic violence. These results and significant regional differences observed in this study suggest that gender role conditioning and cultural norms both contribute to domestic violence. Interventions, therefore, need to go beyond the institutional and legal levels to include cultural capital, which addresses partner and relationship issues.

Study findings suggest that the drug/crime relationship among rural Appalachian women is associated with their high-risk home environment, partner relationships, and mental health. Specifically, in addition to drug use, factors such as family and child relationships, anxiety, victimization, and relationships with partners should also be considered in the trajectory of criminal careers among rural Appalachian women.

With increasing rates of obesity in the United States, attention to life chances and psychological consequences associated with weight stigma and weight-based discrimination has also intensified. While research has demonstrated the negative effects of weight-based discrimination on mental health, little is known about whether different social groups are disproportionately vulnerable to these experiences. Drawing on the modified labelling theory, the focus of this paper is to investigate the psychological correlates of body weight and self-perceived weightbased discrimination among American women at the intersection of race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES). Analyses use data from the National Health Measurement Study (NHMS), a national multi-stage probability sample of noninstitutional, English-speaking adults, ages 35 to 89 in [2005][2006]. Our findings demonstrate that the effect of weight-based discrimination on psychological wellbeing is highly contingent on social status. Specifically, the psychological consequences of discrimination on Hispanic women and women in the lowest household income group is significantly greater relative to White women and women with higher household income, controlling for obesity status and self-rated health. These results suggest that higher social status has a buffering effect of weight stigma on psychological well-being.Keywords: obesity, weight stigma, mental health, race/ethnicity IntroductionThe prevalence of overweight and obesity has almost doubled in the past 30 years in the United States (Flegal et al. 2012). In 2011-2012, more than two thirds of American adults were either overweight or obese, with obesity being slightly more prevalent among women relative to men and Black American adults relative to other racial/ethnic groups (Ogden et al. 2014).Because physical health consequences of overweight and moderate obesity have recently been called into question (Flegal et al. 2012), researchers have become increasingly interested in psychological indicators of quality of life and well-being. Specifically, excess body weight has been linked to lower self-esteem, poor body image, eating disorders, depression and psychological distress (Faith et al. 2002, Graham and Felton 2005, Luppino et al. 2010. Sociology of Health & Illness Vol. 40 No. 1 2018 ISSN 0141-9889, pp. 18-37 doi: 10.1111/1467 A growing literature has demonstrated that overweight and obese individuals may experience psychological distress not because of their weight per se, but rather due to stress associated with weight stigma and weight-based discrimination (Carr and Friedman 2005, Muennig 2008, Puhl and Brownell, 2001, 2003. Negative stereotypes and media images associated with excess body weight have been prevalent in the United States for decades now. According to historical analyses, while fatness 1 was socially acceptable in the 19th century United States, it fell out of fashion as it became associated with poor Irish immigrants. A slender body not only became a way to demonstrate wealth,...

This study makes an important contribution to understanding factors associated with IDU among rural Appalachian women drug users, which are strongly associated with both relational and health factors. Study findings on the specific factors associated with IDU risk have important implications for tailoring and targeting interventions that should include a focus on the relationship context reducing high-risk injection practices.