Walter R. Gove

Adult Sex Roles and Mental Illness.

This paper looks at the relationship between adult sex roles and mental illness.A fairly precise definition of mental illness is used limiting it to functional disorders characterized by anxiety (neurosis) and/or mental disorganization (psychosis). A number of characteristics of the womans role in modern industrial societies that might promote the development of mental illness are discussed. The rates of mental illness for men and women following Wolrd War II are then compared by looking at community surveys, first admissions to mental hospitals, psychiatric treatment in general hospitals, psychiatric outpatient clinics, private outpatient psychiatric care, and the practices of general physicians. These data uniformly indicate that adult women have higher rates of mental illness than adult men. A survey of other disorders which appear to be a response to stress also shows women to have higher rates than men. Alternatives to the role explanation of the observed relationships are shown to be inadequate.

Does marriage have positive effects on the psychological well-being of the individual?

Although a large number of studies show a correlation between marital status and mental health, the relative magnitude of the relationship, as compared to the strength of the relationship of other variables related to mental health, is not known. In this empirical evaluation, it is shown that in the present data, marital status is the most powerful predictor of the mental health variables considered. Data are then used to show that it is the quality of a marriage and not marriage per se that links marriage to positive mental health. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the psychological functions of marriage.

Sex, Marital Status, and Mortality

This paper explores the relationship between marital status and mortality for both men and women. It is shown that, controlling for age, the married have lower mortality rates than the single, the widowed, or the divorced and that the differences between the married and unmarried statuses are much greater for men than for women. It is argued that these relationships can, at least in part, be attributed to the characteristics of the marital statuses in our society, for: (1) precisely the same pattern is found in studies of psychlogical wellbeing and mental illness; (2) the evidence from specific types of mortality indicates that this pattern is characteristic primarily of types of mortality in which ones psychological state may greatly affect ones life chances; (3) a role explanation can account for the way the pattern varies with changes in age; and (4) it appears that the alternative explanation, namely, that the relationship are due to selective process, does not account for most of the variation in rates.

Living alone, social integration, and mental health.

This study is an examination of the effects of living alone on mental health, mental well-being, and maladaptive behaviors. The findings may be summarized in three basic points. First, there is no evidence that persons who live alone are selected into that living arrangement because of preexisting psychological problems, noxious personality characteristics, or incompetent socioeconomic behavior. Second, contrary to what would be predicted by structural functionalism or symbolic interactionism, the data analysis in this study shows that unmarried persons who live alone are in no worse, and on some indicators are in better, mental health than unmarried persons who live with others. Furthermore, divorced and never-married persons who live alone have more in common with married persons, in terms of their mental health characteristics, than do such persons who live with others. Third, unmarried persons who live alone show a slight tendency to be more likely to engage in maladaptive behaviors such as drug and alcohol use than are unmarried persons who live with others. These findings have implications for our thinking about the effects of social integration on mental health; the results raise the posibility that socially integrated relationships which provide not only (1) direct social rewards through reinforcement and increased meaning in life but also (2) regulation of behavior through mechanisms of social constraint, obligation, and responsibility, may entail not only rewards but also costs. For persons who live in socially integrated relationships, if the decrements to mental health produced by social regulation are not balanced by social rewards through some as yet unknown process, such social integration may help create psychological distress.

Possible causes of the apparent sex differences in physical health: an empirical investigation.

For the past fifty years it has been consistently reported that men have higher rates of mortality, while women have higher rates of morbidity. The higher rates of mortality for males can be largely explained by the fact that they have higher rates for the chronic diseases which are the leading causes of death. The explanation of why women have higher rates of morbidity, however, remains unanswered. Recent literature suggests three possible explanations: (1) a greater willingness among women as compared with men to report they are ill and/or to react overtly to an illness, (2) the greater ability of women to adopt the sick role due to their lack of obligations, and (3) the possibility that the reported differences reflect real sex differences in illness. This paper evaluates these explanations and provides support for the view that the sex differences in morbidity are real. The data analyzed show that when one controls for marital status, living arrangements, psychiatric symptoms, and nurturant role obligations, the health differences between men and women disappear.

The Effect of Marriage on the Well-Being of Adults A Theoretical Analysis

We live in a society in which the roles of the individual tend to be both specialized and compartmentalized. Because of the fragmentation of ones relationships it is difficult for an individual to establish a clear identity and to demonstrate to others, and thus oneself, that one is a person of worth. Marriage is a very private relationship and couples are able to develop a social system with its own nomic structure that reflects their attributes and interests. It is a place where ones roles are brought together and decisions are made with regard to how one will perform those roles. An individuals investment in the marital relationship as indicated by time and resources is substantial. It is also an intimate relationship with a high level of emotional involvement and substantial rights and obligations. The primary interaction provided by the marital relationship is thus particularly well suited to the development of a clear definition of the individuals self and worth. Because of these attributes, marriage tends to be strongly related to the well-being of individuals. However, these attributes also often cause conflict and anger in the marital relationship. The benefits of marriage are strongly related to the fact that marriage is a very private relationship. However, because the marital relationship is very personal and private, it tends to be unstable and this instability undercuts many of the benefits derived from marriage. The privacy of marriage also makes effective societal intervention to achieve societal goals particularly difficult.

Parenthood and Psychological Well-Being: Theory, Measurement, and Stage in the Family Life Course

There are theoretical foundations in sociology for two seemingly incompatible positions: (1) children should have a strong negative impact on the psychological well-being of parents and (2) children should have a strong positive impact on the psychological well-being of parents. Most empirical analyses yield only a modest relationship between parenthood and psychological well-being. Usually, but not always, it is negative. In this study we consider the relationship between parental status and several dimensions of psychological well-being. Our analysis is based on data from a large national survey. It suggests that children have positive and negative effects on the psychological well-being of parents. The balance of positive and negative effects associated with parenthood depends on residential status of the child, age of youngest child, marital status of the parent, and the particular dimension of psychological well-being examined. When compared with nonparents, parents with children in the home have low levels of affective well-being and satisfaction, and high levels of life-meaning; parents with adult children living away from home have high levels of affective well-being, satisfaction, and life-meaning. The widowed appear to benefit most from parenthood and the divorced appear to experience the greatest costs.

Response Bias in Surveys of Mental Health: An Empirical Investigation

A substantial body of literature indicates that (1) the tendency to yeasay or naysay, (2) the perception of the desirability or undesirability of a given trai, and (3) the need for social approval have a significant and independent impact on the statements made by respondents in surveys. Most investigatiors concerned with response bias appear to believe that these response bias variables act as a form of systematic bias which significantly distorts the relationship observed between an independent and a dependent variable. However, while the literature indicates such a distortion may occur, this has not been demonstrated. Drawing on the data from a national survey, we look at the effect of these three forms of response bias on the pattern of relationships among seven demographic variables (sex, race, education, income, age, marital status, and occupation) and three very different indicators of mental health (psychiatric symptons, self-esteem, and feelings of positive affect). The results lead to an almost unequivocal conclusion: the response bias variables have very little impact on the relationship, and it seems safe to conclude that these sources of response bias do not act in a systematic way to invalidate the pattern of observed relationships between mental health and common demographic variables.

Sex, marital status and suicide.

In this paper the suicidal behavior of men and women is analyzed for the purpose of increasing our understanding of the roles they occupy in our society. In general it appears that women have been experiencing an increase in stress relative to men. When we look at the relationship between sex, marital status and suicidal behavior, it is evident that there is a greater disparity between being married and being single (or widowed, divorced) for men than for women. These results tend to confirm earlier findings with respect to sex differences in the areas of mental illness and psychological well-being.

The Psychological Well-Being of Divorced and Widowed Men and Women: An Empirical Analysis

In this article we focus on the psychological well-being of the widowed and divorced. The data are from a national stratified probability sample in which the divorced and widowed, particularly divorced and widowed males, were oversampled. Seven different indicators of psychological well-being are used. Compared to the married and, to a lesser extent the never married, the psychological well-being of the divorced and widowed is poor. Overall the psychological well-being of divorced males, divorced females and widowed females is roughly comparable and better than the psychological well-being of widowed males.