Driving Home:  Parental Commuting and Symptoms of Teen Depression Part 2

Originally published in 1999 as the doctoral dissertation:

Driving Home:  Parental Commuting and Depressive Symptoms in Young Adolescents

The following corresponds to pages 6-26 in the hardcopy dissertation:

Chapter 2   REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Overview

            Three streams of research literature will be examined with respect to the relationships between commuting experience of parents and early adolescent depression. First, the empirical and theoretical literature surrounding the commuting experience will be explored. In its most broad form this is a sociological issue of group behavior. The interest of this investigation is in the parental commuting experience as a stressor impacting the mood of the 6^th, 7^th, or 8^th grade children residing in the home. To this end, the commuting experience will be examined as a source of psychological strain with possible spillover effects for the young adolescents in the home.

            Second, an effort will be made to define the parameters of early adolescent depression. How prevalent is depression among children and youth? How should depression be defined and conceptualized? These are basic questions which must be addressed to the degree that we are interested in measuring the mood effects on children of parental commuting behavior. In particular, the focus will be on characteristics and correlates of depression among 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade adolescents which may be related to parents’ commuting behavior.

            Third, the more prominent avenues of early adolescent development that relate to the emotional and affective experience of children will be examined. Are there unique vulnerabilities for this age group? What are the possible mechanisms that might enable parental stress to ‘trickle down’ to the emotional experience of children entering adolescence?

Finally, an attempt will be made to construct a model that integrates these three streams of literature. The attempt here will be to construct a theoretical model that is not only based on research, but also enables us to generate hypotheses.

Commuting Stress and the Family

Commuting Behavior in Southern California

            Driving alone to work has become a way of life for most full-time workers in Southern California. In a 1994 study of 2,625 commuters residing within Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties, it was found that 80.6% of full-time workers who drive to work three or more days per week drive alone (Commuter Transportation Services, 1994). This percentage was up from 77.2% in 1992 and 78.8% in 1993. Despite massive public advertising campaigns to persuade commuters to carpool, the percentage of commuters who drive alone is on the rise.

            In the same regional survey it was found that commuting full-time workers travel an average of 16.5 miles to work (one way), up from the 15 mile average in the previous year. The median commute length was 10 miles, and the range was from 1 to 150 miles. The average travel time to work is 31 minutes and the average travel time home is 36 minutes. This data can be contrasted with a 1993 U.S. Department of Transportation study of national trends in commuting behavior, based on census data (Rossetti & Eversole, 1993). Those findings indicated that 73.19 % of workers drive alone with a mean travel time to work for all commuters of 22.4 minutes. These findings are not directly comparable to the regional study by Commuter Transportation Services because U.S. Census data includes part time workers, whereas the regional trend profiles are based on data from full-time workers. Nevertheless, the contrast is apparent, especially when the percent of Southern California commuters who drive alone (80.6%) is compared with the percentage of commuters who drive alone inside 39 metropolitan areas across the United States (70.75%).

In the Commuter Transportation Services (1994) study, more than a third of the respondents (36%) reported that they arrive at work before 7:30 a.m., while 55% leave work before 5:00 p.m. Also, an increasing number of commuters appear to be making stops on their way home from work (34% in 1994, up from 29% in 1993). Thirty percent of the commuters surveyed in 1994 claim that they need their car while at work five or more days per week. This is up from 26% in the previous year. Although women tend to have shorter commutes than men (14.0 vs. 18.5 miles one way), they are equally likely to drive alone on a regular basis. Commuters who drive have an average 2.7 vehicles per household. Only two percent of respondents report never having a vehicle. In general, older commuters are more likely to drive alone to work, as are commuters with higher incomes (Commuter Transportation Services, 1994).