Lifetime risk factors for women's psychological distress in midlife

Positive and negative body-related comments and their relationship with body dissatisfaction in middle-aged women

“…Comments from husband or partner were particularly influential for thinner women, and for women who had received compliments about their appearance while growing up. Our data support the use of a life course framework (Kuh and Hardy, 2002;McLaren and Wardle, 2002) in future research on the origins of body dissatisfaction.…”

“…The results of factor analysis performed each year (described elsewhere, Kuh et al, 2002) revealed a group of psychological symptoms that clustered together: anxiety and depression, irritability, tearfulness and feelings of panic. An overall score derived from these four symptoms (range 0-12) was assigned to each woman by giving a score of one to those who reported the symptom but were not bothered by it in their everyday life, a score of two to those who were bothered a little and a score of three to those who were bothered a lot.…”

“…We wished to contribute to the existing literature on teasing and body image by (a) asking about comments received during adulthood from one's romantic partner, as well as during childhood (from a number of sources), (b) by inquiring about positive as well as negative body-related comments and (c) by using a large, nationally representative cohort of middle-aged British women for whom information on body size, in adolescence and in middle adulthood, was available. Research questions were formulated within the conceptual framework of life course epidemiology (Kuh and Ben-Shlomo, 1997;Kuh and Hardy, 2002), a pathways model originally used to study adult chronic disease. In its emphasis on social and biological influences across the life span and their independent, cumulative and interactive effects on adult health, this model represents a departure from a more typical focus on adult risk factors which characterizes the existing small amount of literature on body image in older women (e.g., Van Rackley et al, 1988;Tiggemann and Stevens, 1999).…”

Pacific Islands families study: intimate partner stressors and psychological distress among pacific adults

“…International research has reported a consistent relation between current life stress and psychological distress (Kuh, Hardy, Rodgers, & Wadsworth, 2002;Tennant, 2002). Psychological distress is generally associated with a number of potential factors, including the presence of stressful situations, perception by the individual that such problems are stressful, and the ability to cope with the situation.…”

Method: Country of birth, country of residence, and menopausal transitions and symptoms: British birth cohort and Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health

“…8 Psychosomatic and psychological symptoms may be better explained as reactions to cultural, social and family pressures common at midlife 7,9,10 and in relation to prior health, behaviour patterns and stress earlier in the life course. 11 Recent work has shown differences in menopausal experiences between ethnic groups within a single country. In the United States, after controlling for age, socioeconomic status, smoking, physical activity, and body mass index, Gold et al found Asian-American women to be least likely to report symptoms overall.…”