Evaluation of a Holistic Model of Mental Health Symptoms in African American Women

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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extent to which a holistic model of mental health problems applies to the understanding and prediction of general mental health symptoms in an urban sample of 289 African American women. Our holistic model examines effects of eight variables on mental health problems: life events, social support, religious orientation, internalized racialism, physical health problems, marital status, socioeconomic status, and developmental status. From relationships hypothesized among variables, a structural equation model was formulated. Overall, the proposed model fit the data quite well. At the level of intervariable relationships, 7 of 8 hypotheses were partially to completely corroborated. Results were compared with parallel application of the holistic model to the understanding and prediction of alcohol consumption.