In Exercise 15.24 we posited a model in which depression was a function of perceived vulnerability, social support, and age at loss. An alternative, or additional, view might be that vulnerability...

In Exercise 15.24 we posited a model in which depression was a function of perceived vulnerability, social support, and age at loss. An alternative, or additional, view might be that vulnerability itself is a function of social support and age at loss. (If you lost a parent when you were very young and you have little social support, then you might feel particularly vulnerable to future loss.) a. Set up the regression problem for this question and run the appropriate analysis. (Use PVLoss, SuppTotl, and AgeAtLos.) b. Interpret your results.

Use the data set Mireault.dat from Mireault (1990), described in the Appendix and found on the Web site for this book, to examine the relationship between current levels of depression and other variables. A reasonable model might propose that depression (DepressT) is a function of (1) the person’s current perceived level of vulnerability to additional loss (PVLoss), (2) the person’s level of social support (SuppTotl), and (3) the age at which the person lost a parent during childhood (AgeAtLos). Use any statistical package to evaluate the model outlined here. (Because only subjects in Group 1 lost a parent to death during childhood, your analysis will be restricted to that group.)