ADOPTION OF THE SICK ROLE: A LATENT STRUCTURE ANALYSIS OF DEVIANT AND NORMATIVE ADAPTATION

A structural equations model is applied to latent constructs of resources, role strain, symptoms, and elements of the sick role. Recursive effects were tested along with alternative assumptions of causal ordering among these constructs in the cross-sectional analysis of 2,500 young adults. Role stra...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social science quarterly 1988-06, Vol.69 (2), p.281-298
Main Authors: JOHNSON, Robert J., KAPLAN, Howard B., MARTIN, Steven S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behaviorism
Diseases
Gender roles
Houston, Texas
Mental health
Modeling
Motivation
Normativity
Of General Interest
Psychological stress
Psychological symptoms
Self reports
Sick Role
Social behavior
Social roles
Sociology
Sociology (deviance)
Sociology of health and medicine
Young Adults
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A structural equations model is applied to latent constructs of resources, role strain, symptoms, and elements of the sick role. Recursive effects were tested along with alternative assumptions of causal ordering among these constructs in the cross-sectional analysis of 2,500 young adults. Role strain was found to have direct effects on adopting the sick role independent of level of intervening symptoms. The explanatory role of intervening symptoms is interpreted in terms of legitimate motivation to adopt the sick role. Adopting the sick role independent of the theoretically intervening symptoms is interpreted in terms of deviant motivation to avoid role stress. These results demonstrate that degrees of adopting the sick role can be explained both in terms of a deviant motivation to avoid general role strain as well as in terms of normative adaptations to symptoms.
ISSN:0038-4941
1540-6237