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This article examines the impact of environmental context (social networks and neighborhood characteristics) on the distress process. Both personal history and environmental variables are used to explain differences in depressive symptomatology for a random, representative cluster sample (N = 725) of persons 55+ in four metropolitan counties of Alabama. Levels of distress are higher among Whites, women, the younger old, the poor and more poorly educated, and the functionally impaired. In addition, being environmentally dissatisfied, having limited social supports, or living in neighborhoods with transportation problems increases the likelihood of depressive symptoms. As predicted by M. Powell Lawton and Lucille Nahemow's model of environmental press, person/environment factors are important in predicting depressive symptomatology. Interaction effects are demonstrated between competence and the neighborhood characteristics of age density and transportation accessibility. Functionally impaired elders living in less age dense or low-accessibility neighborhoods experienced an increase in depressive symptoms. Functionally less healthy elders with greater environmental satisfaction had lower depression. These relationships document the importance of the residential and social environment for aging.

This paper explores the determinants of neighborhood satisfaction for a population of older persons. Here neighhrhood satisfaction is presumed to be the result of a complicated process involving: objective qualities in the neighborhood, the psychological and physical state of the person making the evaluation, as well as the person's own subjective definitions of the neighborhood. The intent of this research is to weigh the significance of these objective neighborhood conditions, subjective definitions, and the individual's level of environmental docility for the determination of neighborhood satisfaction among the elderly. To investigate this issue a random sample of 1,185 respondents 60 years and older was interviewed in the Albany-Schenectady-Troy, New York SMSA. The data suggest that while all three general factors are significant in the production of neighborhood satisfaction, mental portraits of the neighborhood are the most significant source of neighborhood satisfaction. This finding indicates support for a synthesis of symbolic interactionist and traditional ecological models of environmental response. Clearly, for this sample, older persons sharing the same neighborhoods do not necessarily occupy the same environmental worlds.Recent theoretical and research literature has given new life to the Chicago School's interest in the neighborhood environment (Michelson, 1976;Rapaport, 1977; La Gory ~ * Direct all communications to: Professor Mark

Center for Epidemiological Studies (CES) Depression Scale results for surveys of homeless, community-wide and selected distressed samples are compared. Nearly four times the percentage of homeless fit the criterion for clinical caseness (a score of 16+) compared to the general population (74 to 19 percent). None of the distressed samples exhibited a higher rate except psychiatric patients diagnosed as acutely depressive. High rates of depression have implications for social policies directed toward homelessness.

Sociological theory portrays affiliation as an important source of personal power. Accordingly, some students of homelessness suggest that the extreme poverty and powerlessness of homeless individuals can be traced to a lack of social ties. Using data from a quota sample of 150 homeless persons in Birmingham, Alabama, this study examines (1) whether the homeless are disaffiliated and (2) the relationship between affiliation and power-related life experiences (personal efficacy). A 26-item scale measures affiliation; subscales assess expressive ties, instrumental supports, and acquaintances. Personal efficacy outcomes studied are depressive symptoms, anomie, mastery, physical and mental health, service knowledge, environmental satisfaction, and monthly income. Evidence suggests that many homeless persons have a network of confidants, friends, relatives, and acquaintances. However, these networks differ from those described in past research on general populations. Additionally, multiple regression results assign networks, at best, only modest effects on personal efficacy among the homeless.Affiliative ties are the basic building block for social structure and represent the link between the individual and the group. Thus, social ties, as important modifiers and conduits of experience, shape at least part of life experience. "Whom we know and whom we can depend on influences our success in life, our security and sense of well-being, and even our health" (Fischer 1982).A derivative of this view is that the presence, extent, and structure of social bonds also significantly affect power, the ability of a person to achieve his or her will over the wishes of others. There are many versions of this in the theoretical arsenal of sociology, ranging from Durkheim's anomie theory (118971 1951), to Marx's theory of class consciousness (1852), Emerson's power dependence theory (1972), Collins's theory of ritual chains (1988), and Burt's structural theory of action (1982). While each conceptualizes social ties slightly differently, all portray them as important to personal efficacy. Affiliation provides access to scarce resources, which can translate into power over others (Lin 1982); its absence cuts one off from valued resources and, by implication, reduces power. Bahr (1973) uses the homeless men of skid row to illustrate the affiliation/power *Direct all correspondence to: Mark