Economic distress and psychological outcomes : using objective and subjective measures of economic distress as predictors of depressive mood and self-satisfaction moderated by religiosity

A survey research project was conducted to investigate economic distress and individual outcomes among families in the greater Knoxville, Tennessee area. A random sample of households was selected using a random digit dialing technique, resulting in 366 completed telephone interviews. The objective of this study was to explore the nature of the relationship between economic distress and psychological well-being--specifically, depressive mood and self-satisfaction among individuals. Religiosity is introduced into the process as a coping mechanism to test for moderation or buffering effects when an individual is faced with economic distress. Being near the buckle of the Bible belt, it was anticipated that respondents would be very religious, and religiosity would be a factor in explaining variance in economic distress. Results indicate that there is mediation and moderation in the regression models predicting self-satisfaction and depressive mood. Demographic variables also accounted for some of the variance with the two psychological outcome variables.