One of the biggest prevailing issues today is the burden of mental disorders. Lifetime commonness for physiological disorders are higher than most think and are increasing in different groups, affecting almost half of today's population. Gender is a crucial influencer of mental health and mental illness. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), gender determines the differential power and control men and women have over the socioeconomic determinants of their mental health and lives. There has been a noticeable widespread presence of disorders such as, anxiety, depression, and chronic illnesses.
I want to begin this paper, by discussing the sex difference in depression. One of the largest and most widespread sex differences in depression is, women tend to suffer from depression more than men. To get a better idea, the female-to-male ratio for the diagnosis of depression is 2:1. There are many theories that have attempted to explain this difference, but unfortunately one theory cannot account for the higher depression rates among women, rather maybe, multiple theories. The theories put together specifically highlight the following ideas: in comparison to men, women believe they have less control over their environment, men and women cope differently with their stress, they face different stressors, and women tend to be more vulnerable (Helgeson, 2017). As stated before, depression is a widespread mental health issue so, it is important to note that in 23 out 25 countries, women were found to have higher levels of depression than men. Also, in certain populations, no sex differences in depression are found. These population include, college students and the widowed. The sex differences become apparent during adolescent years and continue to remain consistent.
There is also a higher prevalence of depression among minorities such as, gay, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender. There are many possible explanations for why sexual minorities have raised mental health problems. Studies have noted a relationship between sexual orientation minority status and exposure to life stressors (Grella et al. 2009). Stressors include, discrimination and stigma, lack of social support, and negativity. Half of the LGBT community have expressed that at one point of their life, they have experience discrimination because of their sexual orientation. Some have also experienced anti gay violence, homophobic attacks, or harassment. Many of the LGBT community don't have the support system they want or need. Family and friends may not be accepting of their orientation, which in turn makes their resources smaller than it once was. Lastly, the sexual minority population are likely to embody society's negative attitudes towards them. Each of these explanations contribute to the elevated rates of mental health issues among sexual minorities. Not only do these minority groups show higher rates of depression, but because of that, they also have higher rates of substance use and other mental disorders. The bright side is that compared to the heterosexual men and women, they are reported to more likely to receive treatment due to higher levels of stress and vulnerability (Grella et al. 2009).
As mentioned before, there are sex differences in stressors and response to those stressors. In the Response Styles Theory, it is argued that women respond by talking about their negative effects and trying to figure out their feelings. This is referred to as rumination. On the other hand, men tend to work out, play video games, or play sports to avoid their feelings. This is known as distraction. One would think that distraction is no good because thoughts, feelings, and negative attitudes are being bottled up inside, but surprisingly, it is believed that rumination actually increases depression. According to the Response Styles Theory, rumination impairs problem solving, leads to other negative feelings more noticeable, and it is associated with the lack of social support (Helgeson, 2017). With rumination comes more negative cognitions, which has been linked to depression. Women encourage other women to talk about their feelings and to ruminate – they're social bugs. Like many, they think it will help solve and alleviate problems, because they let it off their chest and feel as if they have that support.
Stressful life events are one of the reasons that women may be more depressed and ruminate more than men. Women are found to experience more traumatic or stressful life events than men. Now, this is not saying that women face more trauma than men. Men and women simply face different stressful events. Men are 1.5 times more likely to experience nonsexual trauma and 3.5 times more likely to experience combative trauma. Whereas, women are 6 times more likely to report sexual assault. It appears that the association between gender, trauma and stress has more to do with men and women experiencing different types of stressors, but that is a different topic to discuss.
As these differences are being discussed, it is necessary to take a step back and discuss where these differences all start. Sex differences in mental health issues begin around the time one enters their teen years, or their adolescence. Adolescence, also referred to as gender intensification is when males and females adhere more to their gender role and norms. This is also where society and the media play a huge part in their lives. They begin to feel pressure from their society to act and look a certain way so, they try and act in accordance with it. During these times of puberty and transition, comes with body image changes and interactions with peers, which is a stressful time and in turn may lead to a greater risk for mental health issues like, depression (Allen, 2018). Although, both girls and boys feel unhappy with their bodies and experience body objectification, it is apparent that girls have a more negative image than boys. Outside of interpersonal stressors, there are those stressors that some may experience when interacting with peers. Studies showed that adolescent girls suffered higher risks of depression due to feelings of not fitting and simply how they were being viewed by their peers (Helgeson, 2017). Again, these are just a few more theories and reasoning behind the gender differences in depression.
Other mental health issues such as, chronic disease, eating disorders, personality disorders and substance related disorders are influenced by gender. With women showing higher percentages of internalizing problems and men having higher rates of externalizing problems it leads to other disorders besides depression. Although, the sex differences in chronic illness are not apparent, gender is still able to provide a foundation to understanding the issues that men and women face. In Helgeson's Psychology of Gender book, she tells her experiences with interviewing individuals with chronic illness, specifically heart disease, and how they reacted. After interviewing and analyzing both the men and women responses, she came to the conclusion that each act completely different when being diagnosed. Her findings match up with other studies, showing that they can be tied to traditional gender roles (Helgeson, 2017). Women are seen to have a harder time adjusting to chronic illness because they feel the need to continue their caretaker roles and responsibilities. This idea is supported by a paper review, stating that women receive less support leading them to negative coping (Vlassoff, 2007). Men are not as supportive as women are when the other is ill because they are less familiar with caregiving roles, while women continue to provide support. Men on the hand, worry more about themselves when they are ill. Helgeson believes men are more independent, considered the breadwinners, have strength and control, and when ill, it all seems to be threatened. This leads to failure to seek help and only leads them to working themselves harder. On a different perspective, Vlassoff's review supports the idea that due to men having a greater support system, they respond to their illness better. Studies are continuing to find different results and ideas of the effect of gender differences in chronic illness, but there is still further research to be done, as they appear to be leaving out the consideration of the functioning before the onset of illness out.
Eating disorders are also unfortunately a common disorder that many face. Everyday people suffer from eating disorders like, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating. Eating disorders typically begin during adolescence or young adulthood due the pressure and standards being set. It is during adolescence that boys and girls start to experience body changes, dissatisfaction with their bodies, and become more concerned about their appearance. Anorexia nervosa is one of the most life-threatening eating disorders and is most commonly found in women. Just like anorexia, bulimia nervosa is also usually found amongst women, almost 90% of cases. Lastly, sex differences in binge eating disorder are still more common in women than men, the disparity is much smaller than the others. For binge eating disorder, men and women report similar rates. Not only does the media and society play a role in eating disorders, but contributing factors also include, genes, gender roles, and psychological factors.
For a brief moment, it is important to also point the influence of gender of substance-related disorders. As previously mentioned, men have externalizing problems, meaning they avoid their problems by resorting to other activities like working out, playing sports, and possibly even drinking. In today's culture, men are socially expected to drink beer and get drunk whereas women tend to drink less and maintain control. Since men are more likely to drink, they are more likely to develop alcohol-related disorders. Like alcohol related disorders, substance abuse is also more common among men.
It's safe to say that any individual suffering from disorders and illnesses like the ones discussed above, may lead to suicide. Suicide is more common than many think. What many do not know is that men actually commit suicide more frequently than women, despite women's higher ratings in mental health issues. Although men commit more suicide, Helgeson believes women actually have a higher rate of attempting suicide. Overall, the suicide rate is four times higher among males than females. Sex differences in suicide extend across cultures. In Europe, suicide accounts for over 58,000 deaths and rates among men are also excessively higher. In a European cross-national study on gender differences in suicide intent, researchers found that men demonstrate a higher frequency of Serious Suicide Attempts (SSA) than females. In addition, rates increased the older the age group, and the most utilized method of suicide was intentional drug overdose (Freeman et al. 2017). In contrast to Helgeson's beliefs, Freeman and colleagues' overall findings show that male SSA was more often than females and that females have a less serious intent to die than males. Suicide in both men and women are likely to be associated with mental health problems such as, depression, substance abuse, and other disparities.
To conclude, this paper was to identify and make apparent the relationship between gender and the incidence of mental health issues. There are consistent sex differences amongst different mental health issues like, depression, chronic illness, eating disorders, and substance abuse. It is important that these sex differences are recognized because they each depend to vary through gender roles. Recognizing the differences between male and females is necessary because each individual or groups will need to be treated differently and will need different support systems.