Sex differences in social adjustment. Effects of sex role socialization and role stress.

This study focuses on the social role functioning component of psychiatric disorders. It assesses sex differences in social adjustment in regard to: work, marriage, parenthood, relations with friends and extended family, and the nuclear family as a whole. Hypotheses predicting sex differences in social adjustment are derived from socialization and role stress frameworks and tested with data from a New Haven community epidemiologic study, utilizing the Social Adjustment Scale-Self Report (SAS-SR). The data show that, consistent with socialization-derived predictions, women manifest greater feelings of inadequacy than men in instrumental work role performance, while men manifest greater emotional inhibition and interpersonal friction. Morever, consistent with role stress frameworks, women express greater conflict and resentment than men in regard to family relationships, but not in regard to friendship relationships. In addition, women's subjective disinterest and impaired functioning in their work role is greater for housewives than for employed women. The implications of these findings for social supports research are discussed.