The impact of marital status and employment status on depressive affect for hispanic Americans

Considerable evidence has accumulated in recent years showing that different family structures and supports have an impact on the emotional well-being of individual members of the family. Most of the research has focused on marital status as a key variable. Using the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HHANES) we examined the combined effects of marital status and employment status on levels of depressive affect for Puerto Rican, Mexican-American, and Cuban-American adults in the United States. The results reveal an interaction between culture, marital status, and employment for all three groups. In general, married, employed males and females have the lowest overall depressive affect scores whereas unmarried, unemployed individuals have the highest scores.