Gender and Mental Health

Abstract

Gender is a significant term that is used to distinguish individuals according to their physical anatomy.It is also significant in knowing individuals, who could be the victims of psychological vulnerabilities. Review of research on mental health revealed that in both sexes, women are more vulnerable to mental health problems than men. It was found that the underlying factor for this is the negative emotional factors and personality factors of women. It was also revealed that socialization process and gender roles also contribute to vulnerability among women all over the world.  To know more about this gender issues in mental health among general population who do not visit primary health care centers, the investigator took a small sample of 90 individuals belonging to Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam-north coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh who are belonging to the age range of   20 to 59, using purposive sampling technique. So far researchers who have done research on gender and mental health have used General Health Questionnaire . An attempt is made to use an empirical based valid screening tool i.e., Achenbach’s Adult Self-report for the purpose of data collection. Further statistical analysis is done by using correlation, t-test and coefficience of contingency. Results revealed that gender differences were found in antisocial personality problems. It showed that the comparison between age and anxious-depressed scale and between age and attention problems have significant difference. It was found that more people of 20-29 years age group were prone to anxious-depressed problems, attention problems, when compared to other age groups. Only for somatic complaints scale more people are found to be between the age range of 30-44 years.

Keywords: Gender, Mental Health, antisocial problems