Traditionalism vs egalitarianism: Is there an association between gender attitudes and mental health?

2021 ◽  
pp. 000486742110314
Author(s):  
Tania King ◽  
Francisco Perales ◽  
Ankur Singh ◽  
Lyle Gurrin ◽  
Bradley Crammond

Objective: This study sought to assess the extent to which gender attitudes are associated with mental health among Australian men and women. Methods: This study used a sample of 26,188 individuals drawn from five waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey. Gender attitudes were classified into three groups (traditional, moderate-egalitarian and egalitarian), and were constructed from six items. Mental health was measured using the Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5). We calculated the magnitude of associations between gender attitudes and mental health, stratified by gender, and adjusted for potential confounding. Results: Compared to men with egalitarian attitudes, poorer mental health was observed among men with moderate-egalitarian (−1.16, 95% confidence interval = [−1.84, −0.49]) and traditional gender attitudes (−2.57, 95% confidence interval = [−3.33, −1.81]). Among women, poorer mental health was observed among those with moderate-egalitarian (−0.78, 95% confidence interval = [−1.34, −0.22]) and traditional attitudes (−1.91, 95% confidence interval = [−2.55, −1.26]) compared to those with egalitarian attitudes. Conclusions: For both men and women, egalitarian gender attitudes were associated with better mental health.

2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 278-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuko Kachi ◽  
Aya Abe ◽  
Emiko Ando ◽  
Tomoyuki Kawada

Objective: Socioeconomic status as a determinant of mental health problems has received scant attention in Japan, which has long been considered an egalitarian society. This study examined the association between socioeconomic status and psychological distress and its trends over 6 years among Japanese adolescents. Methods: We used data from a nationally representative sample of 9491 adolescents aged 12–18 years who participated in three repeated cross-sectional surveys between 2007 and 2013. The K6 scale was used to assess psychological distress. Socioeconomic status indicators included household income, parental education, parental working status and household structure. Results: Psychological distress prevalence decreased significantly from 2007 (10.7%) to 2013 (7.6%). However, the socioeconomic status patterns of psychological distress were consistent through the study period. Adolescents living in both lower (odds ratio = 1.61; 95% confidence interval = [1.27, 2.05]) and higher income households (odds ratio = 1.30; 95% confidence interval = [1.03, 1.62]) were more likely to report psychological distress than their middle-income counterparts. Adolescents with low household income were more likely to feel stress from interpersonal relationships and less likely to have help-seeking behaviors, while those with high household income were more likely to feel stress about school achievement. Psychological distress was also associated with parental poor education and single parenthood. Conclusions: Socioeconomic status disparities in adolescent psychological distress were evident and consistent during the 6-year period. There is a unique U-shaped relationship between household income and psychological distress among adolescents in Japan, unlike those from other countries. However, the underlying mechanisms may differ by income status. Future prevention efforts should consider socioeconomic status as a determinant of adolescent mental health problems.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0192513X2110428
Author(s):  
Jeremy Reynolds ◽  
Katie James

Caring for one’s parents can be good or bad for mental health. Guided by theories suggesting that caregiving work brings both demands and benefits, we examine if mental health outcomes depend on variations in caregiving arrangements. Using waves 5–17 from the Household Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia Survey (16,802 respondents; 115,176 person-years), we divide men and women caregivers into four groups based on their responsibility (main vs. secondary caregiver) and the location of the care recipient (inside or outside the caregiver’s household). We also examine how caregivers’ experiences are moderated by the social support they have. On average, caregivers experience no change in mental health. However, women with low social support who become main caregivers for resident parents experience declines in mental health. Men with low social support who become main caregivers for non-resident parents experience improved mental health. These results suggest that caregiver outcomes reflect different caregiving arrangements.


2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane M. Simoni ◽  
David Huh ◽  
Samantha Yard ◽  
Kimberly F. Balsam ◽  
Keren Lehavot ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. C. Law ◽  
R. Aishworiya ◽  
S. Cai ◽  
A.-A. Bouvette-Turcot ◽  
B. F. P. Broekman ◽  
...  

Abstract Aims There is compelling evidence for gradient effects of household income on school readiness. Potential mechanisms are described, yet the growth curve trajectory of maternal mental health in a child's early life has not been thoroughly investigated. We aimed to examine the relationships between household incomes, maternal mental health trajectories from antenatal to the postnatal period, and school readiness. Methods Prospective data from 505 mother–child dyads in a birth cohort in Singapore were used, including household income, repeated measures of maternal mental health from pregnancy to 2-years postpartum, and a range of child behavioural, socio-emotional and cognitive outcomes from 2 to 6 years of age. Antenatal mental health and its trajectory were tested as mediators in the latent growth curve models. Results Household income was a robust predictor of antenatal maternal mental health and all child outcomes. Between children from the bottom and top household income quartiles, four dimensions of school readiness skills differed by a range of 0.52 (95% Cl: 0.23, 0.67) to 1.21 s.d. (95% CI: 1.02, 1.40). Thirty-eight percent of pregnant mothers in this cohort were found to have perinatal depressive and anxiety symptoms in the subclinical and clinical ranges. Poorer school readiness skills were found in children of these mothers when compared to those of mothers with little or no symptoms. After adjustment of unmeasured confounding on the indirect effect, antenatal maternal mental health provided a robust mediating path between household income and multiple school readiness outcomes (χ2 126.05, df 63, p < 0.001; RMSEA = 0.031, CFI = 0.980, SRMR = 0.034). Conclusions Pregnant mothers with mental health symptoms, particularly those from economically-challenged households, are potential targets for intervention to level the playing field of their children.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Lukas Eggenberger ◽  
Callia Fordschmid ◽  
Claudio Ludwig ◽  
Seraina Weber ◽  
Jessica Grub ◽  
...  

Men as compared to women are half as often affected by depressive and anxiety disorders and seek significantly less help for mental health issues than women. Adherence to traditional male role norms (AtTMRN) may hinder men from describing prototypical depression symptoms and from seeking psychotherapy. The current study compared whether AtTMRN, gender role identity, or the experience of prototypical or male-typical externalizing mental health symptoms were associated with psychotherapy use in men and women. In an anonymous online survey, 716 participants (37% men) reporting to currently experience psychological distress were examined. Information was obtained on psychotherapy use, depression and anxiety symptoms, gender role identity, and traditional male role norms. Although experiencing similar levels of depression, men compared to women showed a reduction in psychotherapy use by 29%. Masculine role identity was directly associated with reduced psychotherapy use in men (β = −0.41, p = 0.029), whereas AtTMRN was not (men: β = −0.04, p = 0.818; women: β = −0.25, p = 0.064). Higher externalizing depression symptomatology (β = −0.68, p = 0.005), but not prototypical depression symptomatology (β = −0.02, p = 0.499), was associated with reduced psychotherapy use in men but not women (p > 0.05). Interactions revealed that men, but not women, with high AtTMRN use psychotherapy only when exhibiting elevated symptom levels. The results corroborate previous reports showing reduced psychotherapy use in men as compared to women and identify elevated masculine role identity and male-typical externalizing depression symptomatology as direct factors associated with reduced psychotherapy use in psychologically distressed men. AtTMRN interacts with mental health symptoms to predict psychotherapy use, indicating that men with high AtTMRN only use psychotherapy when exhibiting high symptomatology.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 811-822 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica M. Mao ◽  
M. L. Haupert ◽  
Eliot R. Smith

Can a perceiver’s belief about a target’s transgender status (distinct from gender nonconforming appearance) affect perceptions of the target’s attractiveness? Cisgender, heterosexual men and women ( N = 319) received randomly assigned labels (cisgender cross-gender, transgender man, transgender woman, or nonbinary) paired with 48 cross-sex targets represented by photos and rated the attractiveness and related characteristics of those targets. The gender identity labels had a strong, pervasive effect on ratings of attraction. Nonbinary and especially transgender targets were perceived as less attractive than cisgender targets. The effect was particularly strong for male perceivers, and for women with traditional gender attitudes. Sexual and romantic attraction are not driven solely by sexed appearance; information about gender identity and transgender status also influences these assessments. These results have important implications for theoretical models of sexual orientation and for the dating lives of transgender people.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle T. Ganson ◽  
Rachel F. Rodgers ◽  
Stuart B. Murray ◽  
Jason M. Nagata

Abstract Background Fasting is an unhealthy behavior that has been frequently used as part of weight loss attempts. To date, little research has been conducted to determine the prevalence and substance use and mental health correlates of fasting among college students. Therefore, the aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence and associations between any (≥ 1 time) and regular (≥ 13 times) occurrences of fasting in the past 4 weeks and substance use and mental health correlates among a large sample of college students from 2016 to 2020. Methods Data from four academic survey years (2016–2020; N = 8255) of the national (USA) Healthy Minds Study were analyzed. Unadjusted prevalence of any and regular fasting by survey year and gender was estimated. Multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to estimate the associations between any and regular fasting and the demographic (age, body mass index, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, highest parental education), substance use (cigarette use, marijuana use, other illicit drug use, alcohol use), and mental health (depression, anxiety, eating disorder symptoms, suicidal ideation, non-suicidal self-injury) correlates. Results Any fasting in the past 4 weeks was common among both men (14.77%) and women (18.12%) and significantly increased from 2016 (10.30%) to 2020 (19.81%) only among men. Regular fasting significantly increased among both men and women from 2016 (men: 1.46%; women: 1.79%) to 2020 (men: 3.53%; women: 6.19%). Among men and women, both any and regular fasting in the past 4 weeks were associated with higher odds of all mental health symptoms, including a positive depression, anxiety, and eating disorder screen, suicidal ideation, and non-suicidal self-injury. Among women, but not men, any and regular fasting in the past 4 weeks were associated with higher odds of marijuana use and other illicit drug use (e.g., cocaine, ecstasy). Conclusions The results from this study underscore both the high and increasing prevalence of fasting among a national sample of college students, as well as the substance use and mental health symptoms associated with this behavior. Healthcare professionals both on and off campus should consider screening for fasting behaviors among college students and provide appropriate intervention when needed.


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