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For some lime, researchers have wanted to estimate models which include effects of origin, destination, and mobility on various dependent variables, but these models are underidentified. When identifying restrictions have been imposed, either the effects of mobility are insignificant or the restrictions are unreasonable. We argue that the most sensible area in which to expect effects of mobility is emotional well-being and propose two types of identifying restrictions on the mobility effects which allow the estimation of main and mobility effects. The first of these constrains the effect of slight upward mobility to be identical to the effect of no mobility. The second constrains the effects of upward and downward mobility to be exponential. For four of five measures of well-being, significant effects are estimated. For three of these, mobility in either direction is associated with improved mental health, For another, the effects of downward mobility are beneficial, and the effects of upward mobility are detrimental. it is critical to remember that these effects are + net of origin and destination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence from a large national survey indicates a significant positive relationship between spouses employment and psychological distress among married men in this country. Employment outside the home is associated with improved mental health among married women. Investigating the determinants of these effects shows that the mental health advantage of employment for women is due to objective changes in their life situations as they move out of the home and into the labor force. We have a less clear understanding of the relationship between spouse's employment and psychological distress among men, but inferential evidence suggests that traditional sex role orientations explain part of this effect. There is no evidence that objective burdens associated with increased housework or childcare responsibilities play a part in the elevated rates of distress reported by husbands. These conclusions are brought together in a discussion of trends in the relationship between sex and psychological distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trends in the female:male ratio of attempted suicide are studied by assembling a data set consisting of all published normal population studies of suicide attempts conducted in the United Stales between 1940 and 1980. A post-World War II increase in this ratio and a subsequent decrease beginning in the 1960s are documented. The first of these changes is consistent with a post-War shift in the sex ratio of overall psychopathology discovered by Gove and Tudor (1973) in an analysis of "true prevalence" studies. The second is consistent with a shift in the rates of self-reported psychological distress found by Kessler and McRae (1981) in national survey data and by Srole and Fischer (1980) in the Midtown Manhattan Restudy. The implications of the findings for current thinking about the influence of sex roles on mental illness are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]