Many people tend to believe that mental health struggles is a “rich man’s disease.” The truth could not be any farther from this belief. Researchers Manuela Angelucci and Daniel Bennett provide evidence from India to show the reality. Their study shows that poor people and women have higher chances of getting depression as they are more vulnerable to negative economic shocks.
Introduction
Economic shocks are events that disproportionately disrupt and impact a country’s regular functioning economy. Negative economic shocks may result in a rise in unemployment, increased inflation, and other economic downturns. The researchers show that negative economic shocks mediate the relationship between poverty and depression.
The existing research has well documented the fact that poverty plays a causal role in depression and that women are more prone to suffering from depression. This challenges the simplistic chemical imbalance theory of depression, and provides support for understanding psychological suffering as caused by structural determinants (poverty, oppression, violence, discrimination). However, we don’t know the mechanisms through which depression varies as per gender and socio-economic status. The researchers conducted this study to shed light on these mechanisms.
Research Method
They collected data from a random sample of 1505 adults living in a peri-urban area near Bangalore, India. The survey screened the respondents for depression. It also collected information on their socio-economic status and exposure to any recent negative shocks. They assessed negative economic shocks by measuring the experience of respondents with a few particular indicators in the past 12 months. The indicators included illness of more than one month, being unable to find a job for at least one month, business loss, incarceration, divorce, or other serious personal loss, and fire, flood, or other disaster, and death of anyone in the household. The approach was to count the number of economic shocks experienced without considering the severity or recency of the shock in the 12-month window.
Respondents Characteristics
Their survey showed that 44% of respondents experienced zero shocks, 36% experienced one shock, 16% experienced two shocks, and 5% experienced three or more shocks. Amongst the listed shocks, the most common was fire, flood, or other distance experienced by 34% of households, followed by a spell of unemployment experienced by 17%, and then illness experienced by 14% of households.
The survey also revealed that compared to the national average of 73%, only 65% of respondents were literate. The literacy rate for women was 10% lower. 54% of respondents were schedule castes or tribes, compared to the national average of 16-17%.
Depression also seemed to be more prevalent in their sample. They write,
“Depression risk is nearly three times higher in the bottom SES quartile than in the top quartile, so that nearly half of depressed people belong to the bottom quartile.”
24% of respondents had mild depression, and 9% had major depression, compared to the average of only 4% in the state of Karnataka. For women, the depression risk was 4% higher than men. These figures show that the sampled population was relatively poor and disadvantaged.
Key Findings
In their sample, depression correlated with both poverty and gender. 18% of respondents in the bottom socio-economic status quartile were depressed as compared to the top 5% of people in the top quartile. Compared to 7% of men, 11% of women are more depressed. Women are likely to be poorer than men and also have a higher depression risk, depending on their socio-economic status.
An additional negative shock increases depression risk by 9% points and 3% points in the lower and higher socio-economic status quartiles, respectively. This effect is 7% points for women compared to 2% points for men. Hence, poor people and women tend to be more vulnerable to negative economic shocks.
“Poverty could be correlated with depression if the poor face more frequent negative economic shocks or are more vulnerable to shocks, and this relationship may vary by gender.”
Discussion
Poverty and gender may make people more prone to depression due to increased vulnerability to negative economic shocks. Negative economic shocks further perpetuate poverty, leading to increased depression. Such a relationship creates a vicious loop of poverty and depression, with the negative economic shock leaving a person stuck in their state. The authors note,
“Living in poverty may also increase depression risk through psychological channels. Poverty creates additional stress (Haushofer and Fehr, 2014), which may increase depression vulnerability cumulatively over time (Slopen et al. 2018). As a result, people who have lived in poverty in the past may be vulnerable to depression regardless of their present economic circumstances.”
The researchers discuss that the gender gap in depression can be entirely explained by their differential vulnerability to shocks. The gender gap in depression refers to higher numbers of women living with depression as compared to men. Due to their increased proneness to economic shocks, women tend to be poorer and have a higher chance of being depressed. This explanation is more convincing than other studies that have found no link between individual gender differences and the gender gap in depression.
Conclusion
The study clearly shows that depression is not a rich man’s problem. It plagues the poorer section of society. Moreover, poverty and gender are linked to higher depression rates due to increased chances of being exposed to negative economic events.
With these findings, the researchers point to an urgent need for systemic changes to build resilience to economic shocks. Moreover, they note that social protection programs may play an important role in preventing depression by decreasing vulnerability to shocks. Similarly, other studies have found cash transfers to be an effective way of promoting well-being for people living in poverty as compared to brief therapy.
Research Article Citation (APA Style): Angelucci, M., & Bennett, D. (2024, May). Depression, Poverty, and Economic Shocks: Evidence from India. In AEA Papers and Proceedings (Vol. 114, pp. 412-417). 2014 Broadway, Suite 305, Nashville, TN 37203: American Economic Association.
Link to Study (pubmed or publisher link if possible): https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pandp.20241060
Researcher Contact Info: Manuela Angelucci [[email protected]]
Neha Jain
Neha Jain is a doctoral scholar at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Kanpur. In her doctoral work, she is exploring institutionalized and de-institutionalized mental healthcare settings in India to understand the nature of care and recovery in mental health through the experiences of various stakeholders. She is also a counseling psychologist trained in trauma-informed therapy and works through an attachment lens with people in their early adulthood years. Apart from therapy and research, she loves reading personal newsletters and listening to Desi rap music.