Hostname: page-component-55f67697df-bzg56 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-09T07:07:49.112Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Women, Marriage, Employment and Mental Health

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Raymond Cochrane  and
Mary Stopes-Roe
Raymond Cochrane
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology
Mary Stopes-Roe
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The University, Birmingham B15 2TT
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

This paper reviews explanations of sex differences in mental hospital admission rates, taking account of age and marital status effects. Six propositions derived from the review are tested on data from a nationwide community survey of 259 respondents, using a standardized symptom check list.

Women report more psychological symptoms than men, but this is unrelated to marital status. It is suggested that being married acts to keep a potential patient out of hospital rather than to reduce symptoms. Whether or not a woman is in paid employment outside the home is a major predictor of symptom levels, especially in depression. Women with unemployed husbands are also particularly likely to report high levels of depression. However, there is no reciprocal effect of wives' employment status on the psychological well-being of their husbands.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 139 , Issue 5 , November 1981 , pp. 373 - 381
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1981 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. (1978) Social Origins of Depression. London: Tavistock Publications.Google Scholar
Cochrane, R. (1979) Psychological Adjustment of Immigrants: Final Report. London: SSRC.Google Scholar
Cochrane, R. (1980) A comparative evaluation of the Symptom Rating Test and the Langner 22-Item Index for use in epidemiological surveys. Psychological Medicine, 10, 115–24.Google Scholar
Cochrane, R. & Stopes-Roe, M. (1980) Factors affecting the distribution of psychological symptoms in urban areas of England. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 61, 445–60.Google Scholar
Cooperstock, R. & Parnell, P. (1976) Comment on Clancy and Gove. American Journal of Sociology, 80, 205–16.Google Scholar
DHSS (1980) Statistical and Research Report Series No. 23. In-patient Statistics from the Mental Health Enquiry for England 1977. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Dohrenwend, B. P. & Dohrenwend, B. S. (1976) Sex differences and psychiatric disorders. American Journal of Sociology, 81, 1447–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dohrenwend, B. P. & Dohrenwend, B. S. (1977) Reply to Gove and Tudors' comments on ‘Sex differences in psychiatric disorders’. American Journal of Sociology, 82, 1336–45.Google Scholar
Fox, J. W. (1980) Gove's specific sex-role theory of mental illness: a research note. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 21, 260–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman, N. & Ravid, R. (1980) Community surveys: sex differences in mental illness. In The Mental Health of Women (eds. Guttentag, M., Salasin, S. and Belle, D.). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gove, W. R. (1972) The relationship between sex roles, marital roles, and mental illness. Social Forces, 51, 34—44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gove, W. R. (1973) Sex, marital status and mortality. American Journal of Sociology, 79, 45—67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gove, W. R. & Herb, T. R. (1974) Stress and mental illness among the young. Social Forces, 53, 256–65.Google Scholar
Gove, W. R. & Tudor, J. F. (1973) Adult sex roles and mental illness. American Journal of Sociology, 78, 812–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kellner, R. & Sheffield, B. F. (1967) Symptom Rating Test scores in neurotics and normals. British Journal of Psychiatry, 113, 525–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kellner, R. & Sheffield, B. F. (1973) A self-rating scale of distress. Psychological Medicine, 3, 88—100.Google Scholar
Klerman, G. L. & Weissman, M. M. (1980) Depressions among women: their nature and causes. In The Mental Health of Women (eds. Guttentag, M., Salasin, S. and Belle, D.). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Radloff, L. S. (1975) Sex differences in depression: the effects of occupation and marital status. Sex Roles, 1, 249–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radloff, L. S. (1980) Risk factors for depression: what do we learn from them? In The Mental Health of Women (eds. Guttentag, M., Salasin, S. and Belle, D.). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Radloff, L. S. & Rae, D. S. (1979) Susceptibility and precipitating factors in depression: sex differences and similarities. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 88, 174–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robertson, N. C. (1974) Relationship between marital status and risk of psychiatric referral. British Journal of Psychiatry, 124, 191—202.Google Scholar
Rosenfield, S. (1980) Sex differences in depression: do women always have higher rates? Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 21, 33—42.Google Scholar
Rushing, W. A. (1979) Marital status and mental disorder: evidence in favor of a behavioral model. Social Forces, 58, 540–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwab, J. J., Bell, R. A., Warheit, G. J. & Schwab, R. B. (1979) Social Order and Mental Health: The Florida Health Study. New York: Brunner/Mazel.Google Scholar
Seligman, M. E. P. (1975) Helplessness: On Depression, Development, and Death. San Francisco: Freeman.Google Scholar
Seiler, S. H. (1976) Sex differences in mental illness: comment on Clancy and Goves' interpretations. American Journal of Sociology, 81, 1458–63.Google Scholar
Stokes, G. (1981) The psychological and social consequences of economically precipitated stress. Ph.D. Thesis: University of Birmingham.Google Scholar
Waldron, I. (1976) Why do women live longer than men? Social Science and Medicine, 10, 349–62.Google Scholar
Warheit, G. J., Holzer, G. E., Bell, R. A. & Arey, S. A. (1976) Sex, marital status and mental health. Social Forces, 55, 459–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weissman, M. M. & Klerman, G. L. (1977) Sex differences and the epidemiology of depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 34, 98—111.Google Scholar
Weissman, M. M. & Paykel, E. S. (1974) The Depressed Woman: A Study of Social Relationships, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.