Gender,the Stress Process,and Health

Abstract

Numerous studies have shown that men and women react to experiences of stressors and a lack of protective resources in different ways, with women exhibiting high levels of internalizing health outcomes (e.g., psychological distress and ill health) and men showing higher levels of externalizing outcomes (e.g., substance abuse and aggression). Although this research is valuable, the emphasis on differing outcomes by gender has prematurely shifted the focus away from the processes leading to similar health outcomes across genders. The current study uses a novel analytic approach, Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), to examine and compare the key pathways that lead to poor physical and mental health among men and women. Analysis of data from a panel study of Indianapolis residents (N = 532) indicates that a combination of numerous stressors with low resources consistently leads to poor mental and physical health. The specific configurations of factors that are sufficient to produce these outcomes, however, differ across men and women, with men requiring a full onslaught of stressors and a dearth of resources to experience high psychological distress or ill health and women experiencing such poor outcomes as the result of several, relatively limited combinations of these factors.