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Same-gender and cross-gender friendships among the frail elderly.

In this article, both the same-gender and cross-gender friendships of a small group (N = 22) of elderly Social Service Department clients in England are described, largely in qualitative terms. The paper raises issues about the importance of cross-gender friendships to the housebound, about gender differentiation within friendships, and about the different characteristics of the two kinds of friendships--ideas that need to be tested in larger, more representative studies.

Aged↗

Gender-based salary inequity in social work: mediators of gender's effect on salary.

This study examined the direct effect of gender, controlling for years of experience, job role, and other variables, in a sample of 359 Pennsylvania social workers. Men social workers received significantly more yearly salary (an estimated 3,665 dollars more) than women social workers. A path analysis suggested that the salary advantage for men that was attributable to their acquiring more experience and management positions was slightly larger than the direct effect of gender. The ability of merit variables to explain salary was somewhat greater for men than women. Other variables that mediated the effect of gender on salary were MSW specialization, working in a social work or a related area, and practice area (children and youths, health, mental health, or other area). The results suggest that substantial gender disparity continues to exist in social worker salaries.

Adult↗

Mixing the genders, an ethical dilemma: how nursing theory has dealt with sexuality and gender.

As nursing moves towards a holistic approach to care, its publications on sexuality have proliferated. 'Sexuality' and 'Gender' are concepts which are extremely difficult to define. While sex refers to the physical differences of the body, gender concerns the psychological and sociocultural differences between females and males. This distinction between sex and gender is fundamental, since many differences between females and males are not biological in origin. And, when a person's gender and sex fall together in accordance with social norms, it may not necessarily be a similar correlation for every individual. The nature of these similarities is essentially threefold. First, Thomas, Savage and Webb accept that there should be a nursing definition of sexuality. In different ways they acknowledge and refer to it as an integral part of a person's being and self concept. Secondly, the authors underline some of the complexities and difficulties nurses have defining and dealing with it in professional relationships as well as on the level of self reflection, knowledge, attitudes and beliefs. Thirdly, all three surveys show why such difficulties prevail, and go on to make suggestions for change in nursing interventions and training. This article summarizes these contributions and discusses the ethical problems which nurses face in dealing with the sexuality of their patients.

Behavior Control↗

Gender, mood state, and justice preference: do mood states moderate gender-based norms of justice?

The present study extends research on distributive justice by investigating whether a person's mood state moderates the robust effects of gender norms on allocation decisions. One hundred and eighty undergraduates (90 men: 90 women) were asked to undergo a mood induction procedure in which they were randomly assigned to a positive, negative, or neutral mood condition, and to work on a task with either a male or female co-worker (confederate). This resulted in a 2 (gender of participant) x 2 (gender of confederate) x 3 (positive vs. neutral vs. negative mood) between-subjects factorial design. Following completion of the task, participants were informed that they did 60% of the work and their co-worker did 40%. They were then asked to divide money between themselves and their co-worker in a way that they considered fair. The analysis revealed a three-way interaction in participants self-payment whereby men in a negative mood, working with other men took more pay for themselves than did participants in all other conditions. Specifically, 60% of the participants in this condition, allocated the payment either equitably or in a manner suggesting even greater self-interest. These results support the view that gender effects are strongly influenced by the presence of other relevant contextual cues.

Affect↗

[Medical education seemingly "immune" to discussions on sex and gender. A study indicates that the gender perspective in teaching is limited].

This article builds upon qualitative interviews with teachers and students in the medical education at Lund university. The results found that a gender perspective is understood primarily in terms of the biological body. Awareness about the different conditions for male and female doctors in the labour market is also apparent. But knowledge about the gender system and its structures of power is not sufficiently problematized when concerning the patient-doctor relation or in teaching about health and sickness. Difficulties with integrating a gender perspective are importantly connected to what is designated as the core curriculum of the medical education. The doctors' attitudes towards a gender perspective and what is seen as "proper medical knowledge" become reproduced in the students.

Education, Medical↗

Are gender differences in depression explained by gender differences in co-morbid anxiety?

BACKGROUND: This review tested the hypothesis that gender differences in depression rates are a function of gender differences in co-morbid anxiety disorders. METHOD: We identified studies using diagnostic criteria, and reporting rates of pure depression, pure anxiety and co-morbid depression and anxiety, separately for females and males. The results of these studies were examined to assess the level of support for the co-morbidity hypothesis. RESULTS: Although some studies supported or partially supported the hypothesis, the methodologically superior studies did not. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that women are more likely than men to be diagnosed with either disorder alone or co-morbidly. Furthermore, the ratio of women to men who experience anxiety alone or anxiety in combination with depression tends to be higher than the ratio of women to men who experience depression alone. Attempts to explain the gender difference in rates of depression would benefit from an understanding that women also are more likely to experience anxiety.

Adult↗

Gender gaps, gender traps: sexual identity and vulnerability to sexually transmitted diseases among women in Vietnam.

We conducted a qualitative study to explore the pathways by which traditional gender roles may ultimately affect Vietnamese women's interpretation of sexually transmitted disease (STD) symptoms and health-seeking strategies. Data on gender roles, perceptions of types of sexual relationships, perceptions of persons with STDs, and STD patient experiences were gathered through in-depth interviews and focus groups with 18 men and 18 women in the general population of northern Vietnam. A framework integrating Andersen's behavioral model of health services use and Zurayk's multi-layered model was used to conceptualize women's health-seeking behavior for STD symptoms. Both men and women noted clear gender differences in sexual roles and expectations. According to participants, a woman's primary roles in northern Vietnam are socially constructed as that of a wife and mother-and in these roles, she is expected to behave in a faithful and obedient manner vis à vis her husband. It emerged that men's marital and sexual roles are less clearly defined by traditional norms and are more permissive in their tolerance of premarital and extramarital sex. For women, however, these activities are socially condemned. Finally, since STDs are associated with sexual promiscuity, both men and women expressed anxiety about telling their partners about an STD; women's expressions were characterized more by fear of social and physical consequences, whereas men expressed embarrassment. Community level interventions that work towards disassociating STDs from traditional social norms may enable Vietnamese women to report possible STD symptoms and promote diagnosis and care for STDs.

Adult↗

Testing the prenatal hormone hypothesis of tic-related disorders: gender identity and gender role behavior.

The hypothesis that prenatal masculinization of the brain increases risk of tic disorders in postnatal life was tested by measuring gender and gender role behavior in 89 children and adults with a clinical diagnosis of Tourette syndrome or obsessive compulsive disorder and 67 healthy, unaffected children and adults. Consistent with this hypothesis, a tic disorder in females was associated with more gender dysphoria, increased masculine play preferences, and a more typically "masculine" pattern of performance on two sex-typed spatial tasks. Males with tic disorders reported increased masculine play preferences, and the strength of these preferences was positively associated with the severity of tic symptoms. In addition, unlike their female counterparts, males with tic disorders showed a relative impairment in mental rotation ability. These behavioral profiles are consistent with those of children who have verifiable elevations in prenatal androgen levels. These findings therefore support the hypothesis that an altered androgen-dependent process of sexual differentiation during prenatal life may contribute to the development of tic-related disorders.

Adolescent↗

Gender-related traits and gender ideology: evidence for a multifactorial theory.

Male (n = 95) and female (n = 221) college students were given 2 measures of gender-related personality traits, the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire, and 3 measures of sex role attitudes. Correlations between the personality and the attitude measures were traced to responses to the pair of negatively correlated BSRI items, masculine and feminine, thus confirming a multifactorial approach to gender, as opposed to a unifactorial gender schema theory.

Female↗

Effects of real gender and labeled gender on adults' perceptions of infants.

Three experiments were conducted to discover factors mediating adults' perceptions of male and female infants. In the first experiment, college students were shown 30-s videotapes of four male and four female babies, each of whom was randomly labeled with a male or a female name. Infants labeled as male were perceived as significantly more masculine and stronger than those labeled as female. Discriminant analyses revealed that both rated masculinity and the combination of ratings on male stereotyped traits differentiated infants labeled as male or female. Analyses of real gender revealed that boys were rated as less sensitive and stronger than girls. Discriminant analyses suggested that the combination of less sensitive, more of a problem, more mature, and more playful best differentiated real males from real females. In Experiment 2, the findings of Experiment 1 were confirmed with a sample of mothers of young infants. In Experiment 3 college students' judgments of the sex of the eight babies were correctly predicted from the sensitivity ratings of these babies in Experiment 1. It appears that there is a complex of cues from which adults make judgments of infants' gender and inferences about their characteristics: Boys may appear stronger, more playful, and more of a problem, and girls seem to look more sensitive. Implications for further studies of gender labeling and for sex typing are discussed.

Adult↗

Gender schema and gender role discrepancy as correlates of body image.

Past studies of gender role and body image have focused on women's self-reported levels of femininity and masculinity as correlates of body dissatisfaction and eating disorders. This study explored how college-aged women's and men's self-reported discrepancies in actual and ideal femininity and masculinity are linked to three measures of body image. For this group of women, physical size, but not gender role discrepancy, was predictive of body image. For the men, in addition to physical size, falling short of their masculine ideal was predictive of more negative body image. Results are discussed in relation to gender schema theory and cultural ideals of female thinness and male muscularity.

Adolescent↗

Gender identity and gender transposition: longitudinal outcome study of 32 male hermaphrodites assigned as girls.

The longitudinal case histories of 32 female-assigned male hermaphrodites aged 18 or older were indexed and abstracted for evidence of variables related to gender transposition, i.e., bisexualism, lesbianism, or sex reassignment to live as male. The prevalence of transposition was biased because of the referral of cases selected for reassignment. Childhood stigmatization, either subtle or blatant, because of the birth defect of the sex organs correlated with gender transposition (p less than .001) and was related to the age of feminizing surgery (p less than .05), which often coincided with the age of gonadectomy. Variables not significantly correlated with gender transposition were: neonatal ambivalence regarding the sex of announcement; feminizing or masculinizing puberty; presence or absence of mullerian organs; and gross family pathology. Physicians encountered no moral problem with sex reassignment as the chromosomal and gonadal sex were male.

Anti-Mullerian Hormone↗

Spanning the gender gap: gender differences in delinquency among inner-city adolescents.

The purpose of this investigation was to study the relationship between gender and delinquency among inner-city adolescents participating in a court diversion program. Official and self-report records of 64 adolescents were analyzed to determine the influence of gender on program referrals, arrest rates, drug use, delinquency, and gang involvement. Gender differences emerged in both the referral source and behavioral patterns of the adolescents. Overall, males were more likely to be referred to the program for violations of the law, to have been arrested, and to have engaged in aggressive offenses and selling drugs. Females were more likely to be referred because of status offenses. Gang membership had an intensifying effect on the delinquent behaviors of all youths. Male gang members were far more likely than nonmembers to have been arrested, and female gang members were more likely than nonmembers to carry weapons.

Adolescent↗

Gender-dependent hypoxic tolerance mediated via gender-specific mechanisms.

Primary hypoxic tolerance and preconditioning are gender dependent and modulated in females during the estrus cycle. The underlying mechanisms, however, remain to be determined. mRNA of estrogen receptor-alpha (EAR), progesterone receptor (PR), and adenosine receptor subtypes A1 and A3 (A1R and A3R) were investigated with reverse transcriptase-PCR in hippocampi from control male and female mice and animals treated in vivo with a single i.p. injection of 20 mg/kg body weight 3-nitropropionate (3NP) 1 or 24 hr prior to preparation. Results were analyzed relative to expression in hippocampi from untreated males. mRNA levels of EAR and A1R were alike in males and females and unaltered by preconditioning with 3NP. In contrast, PR mRNA levels were alike in males and females during proestrus but lower during estrus and diestrus (85% +/- 15%, P < 0.05; and 80% +/- 10%, P < 0.05, respectively). Upon preconditioning, PR mRNA decreased to 67% +/- 19% (P < 0.05) and 56% +/- 13% (P < 0.05) during proestrus and diestrus, respectively, but was unaltered during estrus and in males. On preconditioning, A3R mRNA decreased from 115% +/- 16% to 86% +/- 29% (P < 0.05) during diestrus but remained at the control level during proestrus and estrus. With low-level expression of PRs, as achieved upon preconditioning, hypoxic tolerance is increased. Other than in males, adenosine A3 receptors are not up-regulated upon preconditioning in females. Thus, not only is net hypoxic tolerance gender dependent but mechanisms conferring hypoxic tolerance are gender specific.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

Insights from the NHLBI-Sponsored Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation (WISE) Study: Part II: gender differences in presentation, diagnosis, and outcome with regard to gender-based pathophysiology of atherosclerosis and macrovascular and microvascular coronary disease.

Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death and disability in the U.S., but recent advances have not led to declines in case fatality rates for women. The current review highlights gender-specific issues in ischemic heart disease (IHD) presentation, evaluation, and outcomes with a special focus on the results derived from the National Institutes of Health-National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-sponsored Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation (WISE) study. In the second part of this review, we will assess new evidence on gender-based differences in vascular wall or metabolic alterations, atherosclerotic plaque deposition, and functional expression on worsening outcomes of women. Additionally, innovative cardiovascular imaging techniques will be discussed. Finally, we identify critical areas of further inquiry needed to advance this new gender-specific IHD understanding into improved outcomes for women.

Atherosclerosis↗

Cognitive gender differences in very young children parallel biologically based cognitive gender differences in monkeys.

Infant humans were trained on 2 cognitive tests that have previously revealed, in infant monkeys, a double dissociation that was reversible by perinatal manipulations of androgens and ablations of specific brain sites. Children showed the same sex-linked behavior found with infant monkeys: young boys were superior on the object reversal task and young girls were superior on the concurrent discrimination task. As happened previously with infant monkeys, the gender difference was not apparent in older human subjects. Thus, early in ontogeny, cognitive gender differences have now been discovered in both humans and monkeys, probably a result of gender differences in androgens that influence the maturation rate of specific brain systems.

Adolescent↗

How do romantic relationship satisfaction, gender stereotypes, and gender relate to future time orientation in romantic relationships?

The present study is an investigation into how romantic relationship satisfaction and attitudes toward gender stereotypes about romantic relationship and gender are related to future time orientation in romantic relationships (FTORR). Four hundred and thirteen (208 men and 205 women) university students taking elective psychology courses at Middle East Technical University were given a scale including items about FTORR, romantic relationship satisfaction, and attitudes toward gender stereotypes about romantic relationships. All the participants were then involved in a heterosexual romantic relationship. Multiple regression results showed that for the women, attitudes toward men's assertiveness and men's dominance in relationships were more important predictors of FTORR than relationship satisfaction. For the men, attitudes toward men's assertiveness and romantic relationship satisfaction were important predictors of FTORR, but attitude toward men's dominance was not a predictor of FTORR. Women were more future oriented in their ongoing romantic relationships than were men. Finally, participants who were highly satisfied with their relationships scored higher on FTORR than those who were less satisfied.

Adult↗