Migration For Work, Mental Health And AIDS In Mali

这一纵向项目与马里班达卡拉传统医学区域中心合作，调查工作移徙和其他社会环境因素如何影响多贡(主要是农民)、富拉尼(主要是牧民)和博佐(主要是渔民)族裔群体的心理功能、身心健康以及与艾滋病有关的态度和行为的性质。它涉及对1002名马里农村人的代表性样本的采访。三管齐下的议定书反映了两个单位的共同和个人关切。其中一个问题是对工业发达社会中SSES研究结果在马里农村地区的普适性的测试，这些发现表明，自我指导和实质性复杂的工作会导致更多的自我指导和自主取向，以及更有效的智力运作。第二个方面是研究紧张的职业条件对心理健康的影响，包括为了工作而迁移。第三个方面是审查a)工作移徙和b)文化和社会环境因素对与艾滋病有关的知识、态度和行为的影响。第一波数据收集是在1996/1997年进行的，第二波是在2003/2004年进行的。 今年，使用这两波数据，我们开发了一系列关键概念的结构方程测量模型(例如，工作的实质性复杂性、威权主义、自尊、焦虑/抑郁)，这些模型与我们使用工业化国家类似调查的平行数据开发的模型类似。令我们惊讶的是，在六年的时间间隔中，几乎每一个心理变量的加班相关性都明显低于在任何其他文化环境中发现的水平。为了确保这些较低的超时相关性不是我们的某些错误或统计假象的结果，我们经历了以下艰苦的过程：1)全面重新检查数据条目，2)广泛重新评估代表每个涉及的心理变量的模型。当我们这样做时，我们没有发现任何对我们最初发现的有效性产生怀疑的东西。在我们研究的人群中，这些重要心理变量的统计稳定性非常低的水平是真实的，而不是人为的。我们目前正在测试关于我们人群中这种真正的心理变化性的原因的各种假设，并开发基于结构方程的因果建模的替代方法，以考虑这种超时稳定性的缺乏。 今年，我们还开始分析移徙对工作的影响。我们的初步发现表明，那些为了工作而迁移并与家人保持良好联系的人比那些不这样做的人有更好的心理健康。移民对心理健康的影响也存在种族差异。然而，还需要进行广泛的进一步分析，以了解所涉及的过程。

In collaboration with the Centre Regional de Medecine Traditionnelle in Bandiagara Mali, this longitudinal project investigates how migration for work and other socio-environmental factors affect psychological functioning, mental and physical health as well as the nature of AIDS-related attitudes and behaviors, in the Dogon (primarily farmers), Fulani (primarily herders) and Bozo (primarily fishermen) ethnic groups. It involves an interview of a representative sample of 1002 rural Malians. The three-pronged protocol reflects the two units' joint and individual concerns. One prong is the test of the generalizability to rural Mali of the SSES findings in industrially developed societies that doing self-directed and substantively complex work leads to more self-directed and autonomous orientations and more effective intellectual functioning. The second prong is an examination of the consequences for mental health of stressful occupational conditions, including migration for work. The third prong is the examination of the effects of a) migration for work and b) cultural and socioenvironmental factors on AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviors. The first wave of data collection was conducted in 1996/1997, the second wave in 2003/2004. This year, using the data from both waves, we developed a series of structural equation measurement models of key concepts (e.g., substantive complexity of work, authoritarianism, self-esteem, anxiety/depression) that parallel those we have developed using parallel data from similar surveys in industrialized countries. To our surprise, the overtime correlation over the six year interval of almost every one of the psychological variables was notably much lower than had been found in any other cultural setting. In order to ensure that these low over-time correlations were not a result of some mistake of ours or statistical artifact, we went through the laborious processes of: 1) fully rechecking the data entry, 2) extensively reestimating models representing each of the psychological variables involved. When we did so, we found nothing that cast doubt on the validity of our initial findings. The very low level of statistical stability of these important psychological variables in the population we are studying is real and not artifactual. We are presently testing various hypotheses about the causes of this real psychological changeability in our populations and developing alternate approaches to structural equation based causal modeling that take this lack of overtime stability into account. This year we have also begun the analyses of the effects of migration for work. Our initial findings suggest that those who migrate for work and keep in good contact with their families have better mental health than those who do not. There were also ethnic group differences in the effects of migration on mental health. Extensive further analyses are needed, however, to understand the processes involved.