Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:39:45.416Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Depression and the Physical Environment

A Study of Young Married Women on a London Housing Estate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

John Birtchnell ,
Nigel Masters  and
Martin Deahl
John Birtchnell*
Affiliation:
MRC Social Psychiatry Unit, De Crespigny Park
Nigel Masters
Affiliation:
United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals, Lakeside Health Centre, Thamesmead
Martin Deahl
Affiliation:
Maudsley Hospital
*
∗MRC Social Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A depression-screening instrument (DSI) was administered to all 25–34-year-old, British-born, married women registered with a health centre on a south-east London housing estate. A disproportionate number of high scorers lived in those dwellings with the highest disadvantagement score. The dwelling interiors of the high DSI scorers were significantly poorer in appearance compared with those of the low scorers. Significantly more of the high scorers (and of their husbands) described the estate as unpleasant, and bad for their children. They raised significantly more objections to other residents' (including children's) behaviour. Their complaints were only partly explicable in terms of their less favourable accommodation.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 153 , Issue 1 , July 1988 , pp. 56 - 64
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bagley, C. (1973) The built environment as an influence on personality and social behaviour: a spatial study. In Psychology and the Built Environment (eds Canter, D. & Lee, T. R.). Tonbridge: Architectural Press.Google Scholar
Bebbington, P., Hurry, J., Tennant, C., Sturt, E. & Wing, J. K. (1981) Epidemiology of mental disorders in Camberwell. Psychological Medicine, 11, 561–579.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J. & Erbaugh, J. (1961) An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 561–571.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beck, A. T., Rush, A. J., Shaw, B. F. & Emery, G. (1980) Cognitive Therapy of Depression. London: Wiley.Google Scholar
Birtchnell, J., Evans, C. & Kennard, J. (1988) The total score of the Crown Crisp Experiential Index: a useful and valid measure of psychoneurotic pathology. British Journal of Medical Psychology (in press).Google Scholar
Butterfield, W. J. H. (1968) Thamesmead: a health and welfare demonstration project. In Priorities in Medicine, ch. 14. London: Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust.Google Scholar
Coleman, A. (1984) Urban housing and social malaise. Land Use Policy, January, 14–24.Google Scholar
Coleman, A. (1985) Utopia on Trial: Vision and Reality in Planned Housing. London: Hilary Shipman.Google Scholar
Crown, S. & Crisp, A. H. (1966) A short clinical diagnostic self-rating scale for psychoneurotic patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 112, 917–923.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freedman, J. L. (1975) Crowding and Behaviour. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Freeling, P., Rao, B. M., Paykel, E. S., Sireling, L. I. & Burton, R. H. (1985) Unrecognised depression in general practice. British Medical Journal, 290, 1880–1883.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Freeman, H. L. (1984) Housing. In Mental Health and the Environment (ed. Freeman, H. L.) ch. 7. London: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
Gillis, A. R. (1977) High rise housing and psychological strain. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, 18, 418–431.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldberg, D. (1972) The Detection of Psychiatric Illness by Questionnaire. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. & Hillier, V. F. (1979) A scaled version of the General Health Questionnaire. Psychological Medicine, 9, 139–145.Google Scholar
Hannay, D. R. (1981) Mental health and high flats. Journal of Chronic Diseases, 34, 431–432.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hare, E. H. & Shaw, G. K. (1965) Mental Health on a New Housing Estate, Maudsley Monographs 12. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Higgins, P. M. (1984) Stress at Thamesmead. In Mental Health and the Environment (ed. Freeman, H. L.) ch. 13. London: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
Hinchliffe, M. K., Hooper, D. & Roberts, F. J. (1978) The Melancholy Marriage. Chichester: Wiley.Google ScholarPubMed
Hooper, D. & Ineichen, B. (1979) Adjustment to moving: a follow-up study of the mental health of young families in new housing. Social Science and Medicine, 13, 163–168.Google Scholar
Howard, E. (1898) Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform. Reprinted (1965) as Garden Cities of Tomorrow. London: Faber.Google Scholar
Jacobs, J. (1961) The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Jarman, B. (1983) Identification of underprivileged areas. British Medical Journal, 286, 1705–1709.Google Scholar
Kreitman, N., Collins, J., Nelson, B. & Troop, J. (1970) Neurosis and marital interaction, I, Personality and symptoms. British Journal of Psychiatry, 117, 33–46.Google Scholar
Martin, F. M., Brotherston, J. H. F. & Chave, S. P. W. (1957) Incidence of neurosis in a new housing estate. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine, 11, 196–202.Google Scholar
Ministry of Housing and Local Government (1961) Annual Report for I960. London: HMSO, Cmd. 1435.Google Scholar
Moore, N. C. (1974) Psychiatric illness and living in flats. British Journal of Psychiatry, 125, 500–507.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moore, N. C. (1975) Social aspects of flat dwellings. Public Health, 89, 109–115.Google Scholar
Moore, N. C. (1976) The personality and mental health of flat dwellers. British Journal of Psychiatry, 128, 259–261.Google Scholar
Newman, O. (1972) Defensible Space. New York: Collier Books.Google Scholar
Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (1985) Birth Statistics. FMI No. 12. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Richman, N. (1974) The effects of housing on pre-school children and their mothers. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 16, 53–58.Google Scholar
Sainsbury, P. & Collins, J. (1966) Some factors relating to mental illness in a new town. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 10, 45–51.Google Scholar
Surtees, P. G., Sashidharan, S. P. & Dean, C. (1986) Affective disorders amongst women in the general population: a longitudinal study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 176–186.Google Scholar
Schwab, J. J., Bialow, M., Brown, J. M. & Holzer, C. E. (1967) Diagnosing depression in medical inpatients. Annals of Internal Medicine, 67, 695–707.Google Scholar
Taylor, S. (1938) The suburban neurosis. The Lancet, i, 759–761.Google Scholar
Taylor, S. & Chave, S. W. P. (1964) Mental Health and Environment. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974) The Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Mann, S. A., Leff, J. P. & Nixon, J. M. (1978) The concept of a case in psychiatric population surveys. Psychological Medicine, 8, 203–217.Google Scholar
Zung, W. W. K. (1965) A self-rating depression scale. Archives of General Psychiatry, 12, 63–70.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.