Orchard Christa, Lin Elizabeth, Rosella Laura, Smith Peter M
Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Institute for Work & Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
SSM Popul Health. 2024 Oct 12;28:101718. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2024.101718. eCollection 2024 Dec.
Mental health disorders are known to manifest differently in men and women, however our understanding of how gender interacts with mental health and well-being as a broader construct remains limited. Employment is a key determinant of mental health and there are historical differences in occupational roles among men and women that continue to influence working lives (Bonde, 2008; Cabezas-Rodríguez, Utzet, & Bacigalupe, 2021; Drolet, 2022; Gedikli, Miraglia, Connolly, Bryan, & Watson, 2023; Moyser, 2017; Niedhammer, Bertrais, & Witt, 2021; Stier & Yaish, 2014; Van der Doef & Maes, 1999). This study aims to explore differences in multidimensional mental health between men and women, and to quantify how these differences may change if women had the same employment characteristics as men.
Working-age adults (25-64) were identified through a household survey in Ontario, Canada during 2012. We created multifaceted measures of employment to capture both employment and job quality, as well as multidimensional mental health profiles that capture mental health disorders and well-being using survey data. A causal decomposition approach with Monte Carlo simulation methods estimated the change in differences in mental health profiles between men and women, if women had the same employment characteristics as men.
Among 2458 eligible respondents, women were more likely to exhibit clinical mood disorders compared to men, with men more likely to exhibit absence of flourishing without a diagnosable disorder. Among those who were flourishing, women more often expressed at least some life stress compared to men. When women were assigned men's employment characteristics, which amounted to an increase in employment and higher quality employment, some of the gender differences in risk of clinical mood disorder decreased. However, differences between men and women in the remaining mental health profiles increased.
This study provided an estimate of the contribution of employment to the observed differences in multidimensional mental health between men and women. This adds to the literature by including a broader range of mental health indicators than disorders alone, and by formalizing the causal framework used to study these relationships.
已知心理健康障碍在男性和女性中的表现有所不同，然而，我们对性别如何与作为一个更广泛概念的心理健康和幸福感相互作用的理解仍然有限。就业是心理健康的一个关键决定因素，男性和女性在职业角色上存在历史差异，这些差异继续影响着他们的工作生活（邦德，2008年；卡贝萨斯 - 罗德里格斯、乌泽特和巴西加卢佩，2021年；德罗莱，2022年；格迪克利、米拉利亚、康诺利、布莱恩和沃森，2023年；莫伊泽，2017年；尼德哈默、贝特拉伊斯和维特，2021年；施蒂尔和亚伊什，2014年；范德多夫和梅斯，1999年）。本研究旨在探讨男性和女性在多维心理健康方面的差异，并量化如果女性具有与男性相同的就业特征，这些差异可能会如何变化。
通过对2012年加拿大安大略省的一项家庭调查确定了工作年龄的成年人（25 - 64岁）。我们创建了多方面的就业衡量指标，以反映就业情况和工作质量，以及使用调查数据来反映心理健康障碍和幸福感的多维心理健康概况。一种采用蒙特卡罗模拟方法的因果分解方法估计了如果女性具有与男性相同的就业特征，男性和女性在心理健康概况方面的差异变化。
在2458名符合条件的受访者中，与男性相比，女性更有可能表现出临床情绪障碍，而男性更有可能表现出在没有可诊断疾病的情况下缺乏幸福感。在那些幸福感良好的人中，与男性相比，女性更常表达至少一些生活压力。当给女性赋予男性的就业特征时，这相当于就业增加和就业质量提高，临床情绪障碍风险中的一些性别差异有所减少。然而，男性和女性在其余心理健康概况方面的差异增加了。
本研究估计了就业对观察到的男性和女性在多维心理健康方面差异的贡献。本研究通过纳入比仅疾病更广泛的心理健康指标，并通过形式化用于研究这些关系的因果框架，为该文献增添了内容。
