Busfield, J (2014) Gender and Mental Illness. In: The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Health, Illness, Behavior, and Society. Wiley Blackwell, London, pp. 620-629. ISBN 978-1-4443-3076-2.
Busfield, J (2014) Gender and Mental Illness. In: The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Health, Illness, Behavior, and Society. Wiley Blackwell, London, pp. 620-629. ISBN 978-1-4443-3076-2.
Busfield, J (2014) Gender and Mental Illness. In: The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Health, Illness, Behavior, and Society. Wiley Blackwell, London, pp. 620-629. ISBN 978-1-4443-3076-2.
Abstract
Research provides evidence of a distinctive gendered landscape of mental illness, with women and men differing in the types of disorder they commonly experience ? a landscape that is not specific to Western societies. While there are no marked gender differences in the rates of psychoses like schizophrenia or in dementia, women have higher levels of affective disorders, such as depression, and of anxiety disorders, and men have higher levels of substance abuse and conduct disorders. Consequently the observed gender difference in overall levels of mental illness depends on what disorders are included in the measure. The gendered patterning of mental disorders is now usually linked to differences between women and men in gender-related tendencies to internalize or externalize their feelings, women more often internalizing their feelings and men more often externalizing them. While such differences may be influenced by genetic factors, they also relate to the socialization of women and men in childhood ? a gender socialization that is linked to the expectations of what is required of them in adult life. Further differences in women's and men's social situations also have a direct impact on the gender-related expression of feelings in the face of life events and difficulties.
Item Type: | Book Section |
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Uncontrolled Keywords: | anxiety disorders; depression; epidemiology; feminism; mental health |
Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HM Sociology |
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology and Criminology, Department of |
SWORD Depositor: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Date Deposited: | 11 Aug 2015 10:17 |
Last Modified: | 16 May 2024 18:11 |
URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/14504 |