Abstract
The goal of this paper is to examine the validity of the Traumatology perspective of the dynamics underlying the adverse mental health effects of gender discrimination (GD) on females’ across two different cultural samples. The study was conducted in two samples from Poland (N=277), and Egypt (N=319). To measure GD, we utilized measures of gender discrimination (GD) by parents (GD-P), GD by society (GD-S), internalized gender discrimination (IGD), and GD resistance (GDR). To measure mental health, we utilized measures of internalizing, externalizing, and thought disorders (psychoticism). Further, we used tests for self-esteem, authoritarianism. To control for the effects of other stressors and traumas we used a measure for cumulative stressors and traumas. Path analysis indicated that GD-P in both samples was associated with internalized gender discrimination, internalizing, externalizing, psychoticism and authoritarianism. GD-S predicted lower self-esteem, higher psychoticism, externalizing and internalizing behavior. The model accounted for 40–50% of the variance in internalizing and was invariant on the configural and metric levels. We discussed the implications of the results to intervention and prevention of GD and for future directions in gender research.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abu-Ras, W. M., & Suarez, Z. E. (2009). Muslim men and women’s perception of discrimination, hate crimes, and PTSD symptoms. Traumatology, 15, 48–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534765609342281.
Aleman, A., Kahn, R. S., & Selten, J.-P. (2003). Sex differences in the risk of schizophrenia: Evidence from a meta-analysis. Archives of General Psychiatry, 60(6), 565–571. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.60.6.565.
Belmi, P., Barragan, R. C., Neale, M. A., & Cohen, G. L. (2015). Threats to social identity can trigger social deviance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41, 467–484.
Bleidorn, W., Arslan, R. C., Denissen, J. J. A., Rentfrow, P. J., Gebauer, J. E., Potter, J., & Gosling, S. D. (2016). Age and gender differences in self-esteem—A cross-cultural window. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111(3), 396–410. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000078.
Brandt, M. J., & Henry, P. J. (2012). Gender inequality and gender differences in authoritarianism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(10), 1301–1315.
Burt, C. H., Simons, R. L., & Gibbons, F. X. (2012). Racial discrimination, ethnic-racial socialization, and crime: A micro-sociological model of risk and resilience. American sociological review, 77(4), 648–677.
Carr, P. B., & Steele, C. M. (2010). Stereotype threat affects financial decision making. Psychological Science, 21, 1411–1416. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610384146.
Caspi, A., Houts, R. M., Belsky, D. W., Goldman-Mellor, S. J., Harrington, H., Israel, S., et al. (2014). The p factor: One general psychopathology factor in the structure of psychiatric disorders? Clinical Psychological Science, 2, 119–137. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702613497473.
Cohen, J. (1992). A power primer. Psychological Bulletin, 112(1), 155–159. http://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155
Dardenne, B., Dumont, M., & Bollier, T. (2007). Insidious dangers of benevolent sexism: Consequences for women's performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(5), 764–779. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.93.5.764.
Dennis, M. L., Chan, Y. F., & Funk, R. R. (2006). Development and validation of the GAIN Short Screener (GSS) for internalizing, externalizing and substance use disorders and crime/violence problems among adolescents and adults. American Journal of Addictions, 15(sup1), 80–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/10550490601006055.
Dzwonkowska, I., Lachowicz-Tabaczek, K., and Łaguna, M. (2008). Self-esteem and its measurement. Polish adaptation of M. Rosenberg’s SES Scale. Textbook, Warsaw.
Erol, A., & Karpyak, V. M. (2015). Sex and gender-related differences in alcohol use and its consequences: Contemporary knowledge and future research considerations. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 156, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2015.08.023.
Farmer, P. (1996). On suffering and structural violence: A view from below. Daedalus, 125, 261–283 http://www.jstor.org/stable/20027362.
Fewell, Z., Hernán, M. A., Wolfe, F., Tilling, K., Choi, H., & Sterne, J. A. (2004). Controlling for time-dependent confounding using marginal structural models. Stat, 4(4), 402–420.
Freeman, D., & Freeman, J. (2013). The stressed sex: Uncovering the truth about men, women, and mental health. New York: Oxford University Press.
Gerson, K. (1990). Continuing controversies in the sociology of gender. Sociological Forum, 5, 301–310. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01112598.
Gino, F., Schweitzer, M. E., Mead, N. L., & Ariely, D. (2011). Unable to resist temptation: How self-control depletion promotes unethical behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 115, 191–203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2011.03.001.
Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (1999). Gender, power dynamics, and social interaction. In M. M. Ferree, J. Lorber, & B. B. Hess (Eds.), Revisioning gender (pp. 365–398). Oxford: AltaMira Press.
Graff, A. (2007). A different chronology: Reflections on feminism in contemporary Poland. In S. Gillis, G. Howie, & R. Munford (Eds.), Third wave feminism: A critical exploration (pp. 142–155). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Grant, A. M., & Schwartz, B. (2011). Too much of a good thing: The challenge and opportunity of the inverted U. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(1), 61–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691610393523.
Guastello, S. J. (2001). Nonlinear dynamics in psychology. Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society, 6(1), 11–29. https://doi.org/10.1155/S1026022601000024.
Herrero, J., Torres, A., Rodríguez, F., & Juarros-Basterretxea, J. (2017). Intimate partner violence against women in the European Union: The influence of male partners’ traditional gender roles and general violence. Psychology of Violence, 7, 385–394. https://doi.org/10.1037/vio0000099.
Hogg, M. A., & Sunderland, J. (1991). Self-esteem and intergroup discrimination in the minimal group paradigm. British Journal of Social Psychology, 30(1), 51–62. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8309.1991.tb00922.x.
Hooks, B. (2000). Feminist theory: From margins to center (2nd ed.). London: Pluto Press.
International Labour Organisation. (2015). Retrieved from: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/dgreports/dcomm/publ/documents/publication/wcms.
Inzlicht, M., & Kang, S. K. (2010). Stereotype threat spillover: How coping with threats to social identity affects aggression, eating, decision making, and attention. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 467–481. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018951.
Jost, J. T., Banaji, M. R., & Nosek, B. A. (2004). A decade of system justification theory: Accumulated evidence of conscious and unconscious bolstering of the status quo. Political Psychology, 25(6), 881–919. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2004.00402.x.
Kira, I. A. (2001). Taxonomy of trauma and trauma assessment. Traumatology, 7(2), 73–86.
Kira, I., Lewandowski, L., Templin, T., Ramaswamy, V., Ozkan, B., & Mohanesh, J. (2008). Measuring trauma dose, types and profiles using a development-based taxonomy of trauma. Traumatology: International Journal, 14, 62–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534765608319324.
Kira, I., Smith, I., Lewandowski, L., & Templin, T. (2010). The effects of perceived gender discrimination on refugee torture survivors: A cross-cultural traumatology perspective. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, 16, 299–306. https://doi.org/10.1177/1078390310384401.
Kira, I., Ashby, J., Lewandowski, L., Smith, I., & Odenat, L. (2012). Gender inequality and its effects in females torture survivors. Psychology, 3, 352–363. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2012.34050.
Kira, I. A., Fawzi, M. H., & Fawzi, M. M. (2013a). The dynamics of cumulative trauma and trauma types in adults patients with psychiatric disorders: Two cross-cultural studies. Traumatology, 19(3), 179–195.
Kira, I., Ashby, J. S., Lewandowski, L., Alawneh, A. N., Mohanesh, J., & Odenat, L. (2013b). Advances in continuous traumatic stress theory: Traumatogenic dynamics and consequences of intergroup conflict: The Palestinian adolescents’ case. Psychology, 4, 396–409. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2013.44057.
Kira, I., Alawneh, A., Aboumediene, S., Lewandowski, L., & Laddis, A. (2014a). Dynamics of oppression and coping from traumatology perspective: The example of Palestinian youth. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 20, 385–411. https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000053.
Kira, I., Lewandowski, L., Chiodo, L., & Ibrahim, A. (2014b). Advances in systemic trauma theory: Traumatogenic dynamics and consequences of backlash as a multi-systemic trauma on Iraqi refugee Muslim adolescents. Psychology, 5, 389–412. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2014.55050.
Kira, I. A., Omidy, A. Z., Fawzi, M., Rice, K. G., Fawzi, M., Lewandowski, L., & Bujold-Bugeaud, M. (2015a). Are the negative mental health effects of gender discrimination (GD) salient across cultures? Does self-esteem mediate these effects: GD as a continuous traumatic stress and the pathways to its negative dynamics? Psychology, 6, 93–116. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2015.61009.
Kira, I., Shuwiekh, H., & Bujold-Bugeaud, M. (2015b). Gender discrimination (GD): A conceptual trauma-based framework for GD and the development of gender discrimination inventory. Psychology, 6, 2041–2070. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2015.616201.
Kira, I., Shuwiekh, H., & Bujold-Bugeaud, M. (2017). Toward identifying the etiologies of gender differences in authoritarianism and mental health: An Egyptian study. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 23, 183–188. https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000206.
Klonoff, E. A., Landrine, H., & Campbell, R. (2000). Sexist discrimination may account for well- known gender differences in psychiatric symptoms. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 24(1), 93–99. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2000.tb01025.x.
Laceulle, O., Vollebergh, W., & Ormel, J. (2015). The structure of psychopathology in adolescence: Replication of a general psychopathology factor in the TRAILS study. Clinical Psychological Science, 3, 850–860. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702614560750.
Lane, R. E. (1950). Political personality and electoral choice. American Political Science Review, 49, 173–190. https://doi.org/10.2307/1951646.
Lott, B. (1985). The potential enrichment of social/personality psychology through feminist research and vice versa. American Psychologist, 40, 155–164. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.40.2.155.
Mann, M. M., Hosman, C. M., Schaalma, H. P., & De Vries, N. K. (2004). Self-esteem in a broad- spectrum approach for mental health promotion. Health Education Research, 19(4), 357–372. https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyg041.
McNulty, J. K., & Fincham, F. D. (2012). Beyond positive psychology? Toward a contextual view of psychological processes and well-being. American Psychologist, 67, 101–110. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024572.
Medina, J. (2012). The epistemology of resistance: Gender and racial oppression, epistemic injustice, and the social imagination. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pratto, F., Stallworth, L. M., Sidanius, J., & Siers, B. (1997). The gender gap in occupational role attainment: A social dominance approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72(1), 37–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.72.1.37
Rogers, L. O., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2017). Is gender more important and meaningful than race? An analysis of racial and gender identity among black, white, and mixed-race children. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 23, 323–334. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000125.
Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Rutter, M., Caspi, A., & Moffitt, T. E. (2003). Using sex differences in psychopathology to study causal mechanisms: Unifying issues and research strategies. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 44(8), 1092–1115. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00194.
Sanford, F. H., & Older, H. J. (1950). A short authoritarian-equalitarian scale. Department of Psychology University of California Los Angeles 24, California.
Sattler, F. A., Zeyen, J., & Christiansen, H. (2017). Does sexual identity stress mediate the association between sexual identity and mental health? Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 4(3), 296–303. https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000232.
Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of black Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 797–811. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.69.5.797.
Surís, A., & Lind, L. (2008). Military sexual trauma: A review of prevalence and associated health consequences in veterans. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 9(4), 250–269. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838008324419.
Thompson, A., Hollis, C., & Richards, D. (2003). Authoritarian parenting attitudes as a risk for conduct problems. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 12(2), 84–91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-003-0324-4.
United Nations Development Programme. (2015) Human development reports 2015 online. Retrieved 16 Feb 2016. http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/GII.
van de Schoot, R., Lugtig, P., & Hox, J. (2012). A checklist for testing measurement invariance. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 9, 486–492. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2012.686740.
Walby, S., Armstrong, J., & Strid, S. (2012). Intersectionality: Multiple inequalities in social theory. Sociology, 46(2), 224–240. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038511416164.
Waszak, C., Severy, L. J., Kafafi, L., & Badawi, I. (2001). Fertility behavior and psychological stress: The mediating influence of gender norm beliefs among Egyptian women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 25(3), 197–208.
Wilson, M. S., & Liu, J. H. (2003). Social dominance orientation and gender: The moderating role of gender identity. British Journal of Social Psychology, 42(2), 187–198. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466603322127175.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Further, no grants were received by either of the authors related to this research.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kira, I.A., Shuwiekh, H., Kucharska, J. et al. The dynamics underlying the negative mental health effects of gender discrimination in two samples: Poland and Egypt. Curr Psychol 39, 74–88 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-017-9730-5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-017-9730-5