Negative Life Events and Mental Ill-Health Among Women: A Prospective Study of the Main, Moderating and Mediating Effect
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Negative Life Events and Mental Ill-Health Among Women: A Prospective Study of the Main, Moderating and Mediating Effect of Sense of Coherence Jacek Hochwa¨lder
Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
Abstract Antonovsky’s original observations of mental health among women who had survived Nazi concentration camps became the start for the formulation of sense of coherence (SOC) and suggested that the experience of negative life events can be a riskfactor for, whilst SOC can be a protection-factor against, mental ill-health. In the present study, 1,012 women responded to a questionnaire at two points in time that measured mental ill-health, SOC and the experience of negative life events. The results showed that women who had recently experienced negative life events had higher levels of mental illhealth compared to women who had not recently experienced any negative life events. SOC was also found to have a main effect on mental ill-health but neither moderated nor mediated the relation between negative life events and mental ill-health. Suggestions for future research and practical implications are given. Keywords Sense of coherence Negative life events Mental ill-health Prospective study
1 Introduction In 1970 Antonovsky was analysing data on how Israeli women cope with the menopause. By chance he noted that 51 % of the women who had not been in Nazi concentration camps had satisfactory mental health while 29 % of the women who had been in the camps had satisfactory health. Antonovsky found it remarkable that almost one-third of the women who had survived Nazi concentration camps had satisfactory mental health and he started to think about what made them stay healthy despite all the horrors they had been through. In an attempt to find an answer to this question he constructed the concept of sense of coherence (SOC) (Antonovsky 1979, 1987). Antonovsky (1987, p. 19) defined SOC as ‘‘a global orientation that expresses the extent to which one has a pervasive, enduring though dynamic feeling of confidence that: (1) the J. Hochwa¨lder (&) Department of Psychology, Ma¨lardalens University, Box 325, 631 05 Eskilstuna, Sweden e-mail: [email protected]
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stimuli, deriving from ones internal and external environments in the course of living are structured, predictable and explicable; (2) the resources are available to one to meet the demands posed by these stimuli; and (3) these demands are challenges, worthy of investment and engagement’’. Thus, SOC comprises: (1) a cognitive component labelled comprehensibility, representing the extent of the belief that the problem faced is clear; (2) an instrumental component labelled manageability, representing the extent of the belief that the necessary resources to successfully cope with the problem are available; and (3) a motivational component labelled meaningfulness, representing the extent of the belief that one wishes to cope. However, Antonovsky (1987, 1993) advocated that the three components are separately insufficient to assess S
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