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To estimate the incidence, chronicity, and remission of symptoms of insomnia and to examine factors associated with the incidence and chronicity of insomnia among adolescents.

The purpose of this study was to examine the concordance of parental and adolescent reports of adolescents having emotional and behavioral problems. Data were collected from youths (age 11–17) and adult caregivers from a community-based sample of households. The sample consisted of 4175 youths and their caregivers (37.8% European, 35.0% African, 25.4% Latino, and 1.8% other American). Indicators of emotional and/or behavioral problems were global indicators: perceived mental health, life satisfaction, happiness, interpersonal problems at home, and problems at school. Overall, parent-child concordance on the indicators of mental health was low, with a mean κ value of 0.12. In multivariate analyses, European American parent-youth dyads were significantly more likely to be concordant on reports of perceived mental health, problems at home, and problems at school than African American and Latino dyads. Our data suggest that ethnicity is a significant factor in parental labeling and awareness of adolescent mental health problems. Future research should examine whether the extent to which greater lack of concordance on the indicators of mental health by minority parent-child dyads plays a role in entry into and retention in mental health care.

Data from a community survey are presented comparing psychiatric morbidity among women (n=1,710), examining the effects of marital status, employment status, and social contacts with significant others, controlling statistically for the effects of age, education, and income. Contrary to earlier results reported by Findlay-Jones and Burvill (1979), we found both married and unmarried women who were employed had lower morbidity rates. Furthermore, analysis of covariance results indicate that when marital status, employment, and social contacts are considered simultaneously, only the latter variable is a significant predictor of psychiatric morbidity among women.

Sex differences in depressive symptomatology among Mexican Americans are examined using data from two sample surveys conducted in Alameda County, California, in 1975 and 1978. In both studies, women reported more depressive symptoms than men, even after controlling for the effects of age, education, and income. Among the married, the employed reported fewer depressive symptoms than the nonemployed, and controlling for the effects of employment on depression eliminated the sex differentials observed initially. Also, in both studies, there was no difference in the depression scores of employed men and women. This finding for Mexican Americans is at variance with most findings from other populations, in which employed men generally report less depression than their female counterparts. Another finding was that housewives in both studies reported more symptoms of depression than did working men, which is consistent with previous research results. In regard to the contrast between employed and nonemployed women, in one sample the housewives were more depressed while in the other there was no difference between these two groups.

Trends in depression are examined using data from the Alameda County Study, a three-wave, prospective community survey covering an 18-year period (1965-1974-1983). Age-period-cohort effects in rates of depressive symptoms were analyzed using logistic regression procedures to adjust for attrition due to loss-to-follow-up and nonresponse. The results indicate the presence of all three effects. There was a marked period effect, with rates in 1974 significantly higher than in either 1965 or 1983. There also was a definite cohort effect, with older cohorts exhibiting higher rates of depressive symptoms than younger cohorts. These findings do not provide support for an "age of melancholia" nor for an increasing cohort effect in succeeding generations. These prospective data on depressive symptoms are contrasted with those from studies that use cross-sectional data to estimate temporal trends in clinical depression, employing retrospective reports of lifetime prevalence and discussing possible reasons for the disparate findings.