Stressful life events and depressive symptoms during COVID-19: A gender comparison.

Publisher: published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the London School of Economics and Political Science Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 0373126 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1468-4446 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00071315 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Br J Sociol Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: London : published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the London School of Economics and Political Science
Original Publication: London, Published by Routledge & Kegan Paul for London, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Depression*/epidemiology ; Depression*/diagnosis ; Depression*/psychology ; COVID-19*/epidemiology; Male ; Humans ; Female ; Stress, Psychological/epidemiology ; Stress, Psychological/psychology ; Pandemics ; Surveys and Questionnaires

The COVID-19 pandemic precipitated a wide range of public health, economic, social, and political shocks, setting in motion life events that reverberated to affect individuals' mental health. Moving beyond a checklist approach, this study drew on individuals' own words to identify both conventional and novel sources of stress during COVID-19 and examine the role of stressful life events in producing gender disparities in depressive symptoms. Drawing on a 2021 U.S. nationally representative survey, we coded text responses to an open-ended question on stressful life events and conducted descriptive and regression analyses (n = 1733). The analyses revealed three key findings. First, men were more likely to report having experienced no stressful life events or else mention politics as a source of stress. Women, by comparison, were more likely to report the following as stressful-inability to socialize, paid work, care work, health, or the death of loved ones. Second, for both women and men, respondents reporting no stressful life events had the lowest, and those reporting finances as the most stressful life event had the highest, depressive symptoms. Third, women had higher depressive symptoms than men, and mediation analysis showed that stressful life events explained approximately a third of the gender gap in depressive symptoms. The findings indicate that policies attending to people's financial stress are important for mitigating mental health risks in turbulent times. Interventions that reduce women's exposure to stressful life events are also crucial to bridging gender disparities in mental health.
(© 2023 The Authors. The British Journal of Sociology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of London School of Economics and Political Science.)

Aneshensel, C. S., Phelan, J. C., & Bierman, A. (2013). Handbook of the sociology of mental health (2nd ed.). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4276-5.
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (Second Edition). Academic press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203771587.
Cohen, S., Murphy, M. L. M., & Prather, A. A. (2019). Ten surprising facts about stressful life events and disease risk. Annual Review of Psychology, 70(1), 577-597. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-102857.
Corpuz, J. C. G. (2021). Beyond death and afterlife: The complicated process of grief in the time of COVID-19. Journal of Public Health, 43(2), e281-e282. https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdaa247.
Courtenay, W. H. (2000). Constructions of masculinity and their influence on men’s well-being: A theory of gender and health. Social Science and Medicine, 50(10), 1385-1401. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-9536(99)00390-1.
Dohrenwend, B. P. (2006). Inventorying stressful life events as risk factors for psychopathology: Toward resolution of the problem of intracategory variability. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 477-495. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.477.
Fan, W., & Moen, P. (2022). Working more, less or the same during COVID-19? A mixed method, intersectional analysis of remote workers. Work and Occupations, 49(2), 143-186. https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884211047208.
Fan, W., & Qian, Y. (2023). State contexts, job insecurity, and subjective well-being in the time of COVID-19. Journal of Happiness Studies, 24(6), 2039-2059. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-023-00669-9.
Grimmer, J., Roberts, M. E., & Stewart, B. (2022). Text as data: A new framework for machine learning and the social sciences. Princeton University Press.
Helgeson, V. S. (2011). Gender, stress, and coping. In S. Folkman (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of stress, health, and coping (1st ed., pp. 63-85). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195375343.001.0001.
Holmes, T. H., & Rahe, R. H. (1967). The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 11(2), 213-218. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3999(67)90010-4.
Hudde, A., Hank, K., & Jacob, M. (2023). Parenthood and dynamics of life satisfaction in times of COVID-19. British Journal of Sociology, 74(3), 419-432. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.13003.
Kessel, P. V., Baronavski, C., Scheller, A., & Smith, A. (2021). In their own words, Americans describe the struggles and silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic. https://www.pewresearch.org/2021/03/05/in-their-own-words-americans-describe-the-struggles-and-silver-linings-of-the-covid-19-pandemic/.
Kessler, R. C. (2000). Gender differences in major depression: Epidemiological findings. In E. Frank (Ed.), Gender and its effects on psychopathology (pp. 61-84). American Psychiatric Press.
Kessler, R. C., McLeod, J. D., & Wethington, E. (1985). The costs of caring: A perspective on the relationship between sex and psychological distress. In Social support: Theory, research and applications (pp. 491-506). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5115-0_25.
Liu, C. H., Zhang, E., Wong, G. T. F., Hyun, S., & Hahm, H. (2020). Factors associated with depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptomatology during the COVID-19 pandemic: Clinical implications for U.S. young adult mental health. Psychiatry Research, 290, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113172.
Mize, T. D., Doan, L., & Long, J. S. (2019). A general framework for comparing predictions and marginal effects across models. Sociological Methodology, 49(1), 152-189. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081175019852763.
Moen, P. (2022). The uneven stress of social change: Disruptions, disparities, and mental health. Society and Mental Health, 12(2), 85-98. https://doi.org/10.1177/21568693221100171.
Paredes, M. R., Apaolaza, V., Fernandez-Robin, C., Hartmann, P., & Yañez-Martinez, D. (2021). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on subjective mental well-being: The interplay of perceived threat, future anxiety and resilience. Personality and Individual Differences, 170, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110455.
Paykel, E. S. (2001). The evolution of life events research in psychiatry. Journal of Affective Disorders, 62(3), 141-149. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-0327(00)00174-9.
Pearlin, L., & Bierman, A. (2013). Current issues and future directions in research into the stress process. Handbook of the Sociology of Mental Health, 325-340. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4276-5_16.
Qian, Y., & Fan, W. (2023). The early 2020 COVID-19 outbreak in China and subsequent flourishing: Medium-term effects and intervening mechanisms. Society and Mental Health, 13(3), 208-226. https://doi.org/10.1177/21568693221131819.
Ridgeway, C. L. (2011). Framed by gender: How gender inequality persists in the modern world. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199755776.001.0001.
Rieker, P. P., Bird, C. E., & Lang, M. E. (2010). Understanding gender and health: Old patterns, new trends, and future directions. In Handbook of medical sociology (6th ed., pp. 52-74). Vanderbilt University Press.
Stanhope, K. K., Temple, J. R., Bann, C., Parker, C. B., Dudley, D., & Hogue, C. J. R. (2021). Variation in self-identified most stressful life event by outcome of previous pregnancy in a population-based sample interviewed 6-36 months following delivery. Social Science and Medicine, 282, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114138.
Taylor, J. (2015). Gender orientation and the cost of caring for others. Society and Mental Health, 5(1), 49-65. https://doi.org/10.1177/2156869314562966.
Vacchiano, M., Politi, E., & Lueders, A. (2023). The COVID-19 pandemic as an existential threat: Evidence on young people’s psychological vulnerability using a Multifaceted Threat Scale. PLoS One, 18(10), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0292894.
Wheaton, B. (1994). Sampling the stress universe. In Stress and mental health (pp. 77-114). Springer US. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1106-3_4.
Wong, S. M. Y., Wong, C. W. C., Hui, C. L. M., Chan, S. K. W., Lee, E. H. M., Chang, W. C., Suen, Y. N., & Chen, E. Y. H. (2022). Stressful events as correlates of depressive and PTSD symptoms in Hong Kong women during social unrest and COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Affective Disorders, 300, 263-268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2022.01.002.
Yavorsky, J. E., Qian, Y., & Sargent, A. C. (2021). The gendered pandemic: The implications of COVID-19 for work and family. Sociology Compass, 15(6), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12881.

Canada CAPMC CIHR; Canada CAPMC CIHR

Keywords: COVID-19; United States; depressive symptoms; gender; mental health; stressful life events

Date Created: 20231117 Date Completed: 20240111 Latest Revision: 20240111

20240111

10.1111/1468-4446.13067

37974500