Study: Lack of diapers linked to depression

[antigone382]

44. Well sure, but I don't think the social scientists were trying to blame diapers alone.

They make it clear in the article that they aren't even assuming that lack of diapers precedes depression. They suggest that lack of diapers is an indicator of overall poverty, and that poverty and depression are linked, and in all probability in a sort of "feedback loop" relationship--poverty results in depression which results in worse poverty and/or vice versa. It just so happens that in this study, they found a statistically significant link between reported lack of access to diapers and reported depression.

I think a lot of the reaction in this thread (not you specifically) stems from some fundamental inaccuracies about how social research is done and what its' capabilities are. Trying to apply scientific principles to the analysis of social realities is incredibly difficult and at a certain level impossible, because there are so many variables, ethical issues, and abstract concepts involved. These people had the funding for one study with a limited focus area. It happened to include questions about depression and questions about access to diapers, and it happened to find that these two things are correlated. If you read the actual study wherever it is published, they probably link that to other studies and other data to integrate it into a scholarly conversation about the relationship between poverty and depression; but in a news article reporting on the study, you aren't going to get that.