An empirical taxonomy of symptom types among divorcing persons

This study generated and assessed an empirical taxonomy of symptom profiles or types in a nonclinical population. Three hundred and thirty men and women who recently had separated from their marital partners were interviewed and completed a variety of instruments. Cluster analysis of factors derived from one such instrument, a symptom checklist, yielded a provisional classification of respondents into nine types. The latter were examined for differences in socio-economic characteristics as well as several variables suggested in the literature to predict or help explain symptom formation: Feelings of control, self-concept, social stressors, and current morale. Results indicated three types to be relatively well off despite the potentially stressful conditions inherent in divorce. The Overwhelmed and the Somatic depressives, in contrast, demonstrated multiple signs of dysfunction. The findings indicate the value of applying empirical classification procedures to at-risk populations in the community.