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10/23/2017 Yuzu: Psychology of Gender: Fourth Edition

https://reader.yuzu.com/#/books/9781317345046/cfi/6/40!/4/2/2/12/4@0:0 1/2

DO GENDER 11.1 Social Support Seeking

Is it true that men are less likely than women to seek support when they are having problems? If so, why? Have a group of women and men recall the last time they experienced a stressful event. Then ask them to rate how much they sought the help of others. If they check a response that indicates they did not seek help or did not seek much help, ask them why. Tally your responses to see if women’s and men’s reasons for not seeking help differ.

Evidence: Relations to Health Structural Indices. A number of large epidemiological studies have evaluated the relation of social network indices to health. These studies typically evaluate women’s and men’s initial health status, measure aspects of their social networks (group membership, church attendance, frequency of contact with neighbors, and, sometimes, marital status), and then measure physical health years later. A number of these studies show stronger health benefits of social networks for men than women. For example, in a study of 2,754 men and women from Tecumseh County, Michigan, men who reported more social relationships and more activities (e.g., attending voluntary associations and going out to social events) were less likely to die 9 to 12 years later (House, Robbins, & Metzner, 1982). There were weak trends in the same direction for women, but they were not significant. Other studies have found social network indices predict mortality among men but not women (Kaplan et al., 1988; Schoenbach et al., 1986).

Some studies even show adverse effects of social networks on women’s health. For example, Schoenbach and colleagues (1986) found that their social network index was associated with greater mortality among White women under the age of 60. In a study in Sweden, a social network index was related to reduced mortality for both men and women with one exception: For women between the ages of 65 and 74, the social network index was associated with heightened mortality (Orth-Gomer & Johnson, 1987).

The explanations for the lack of effects and adverse effects of structural support on women’s health often revolve around women’s social roles. The presence of a social network for women is a double-edged sword (Belle, 1982): It means more people are available to help women but also that more people will turn to women for help. For example, what happens in marriage when one person has a chronic illness? Women are expected to take care of the family whether they are the caregiver or the patient. Social networks may also expose women to additional sources of stress, an issue that will be discussed in more depth in Chapter 13. However, women also may benefit from their role as support providers. A nine-year longitudinal study of employees showed that men who received more support than they provided had fewer sick days nine years later, whereas women who provided more support than they received had fewer sick days nine years later (Vaananen et al., 2005).

Thus it appears that women are more likely than men to reap the benefits of a social network but also to suffer the costs of network involvement. Women are more likely to have social support available but also more likely to have problematic social relations and conflict. The positive and negative effects of social networks for women may cancel each other out in terms of health: Supportive relations decrease depression, but unsupportive relations and caregiver burden increase depression. Functional Indices. Some evidence—but not all—suggests the functional aspects of support are more strongly related to health among women than men. Support has been more strongly related to better perceived health and less functional disability (Denton & Walters, 1999), good health practices (Jackson, 2006), and positive health perceptions (Cheng & Chan, 2006) among women than men. A study of opposite-sex dizygotic twins showed that social support predicted a reduction in the onset of major depression over the next year among females but not males (Kendler et al., 2005). By contrast, a study of people with heart disease showed social support was equally related to life satisfaction and mood for women and men (Rueda & Perez-Garcia, 2006), and a study of elderly people in Japan showed that social support was more strongly related to positive health perceptions among men than women (Okamoto & Tanaka, 2004). One way that the effect of functional support on health has been examined is in the context of Stressor reactivity studies. See Sidebar 11.1 for a discussion of how support buffers one from laboratory Stressors.

Why would the qualitative dimensions of support be more strongly related to women’s than men’s health? One explanation is that women’s identities are more strongly tied than men’s identities to their connection to others. Variability in an identity-relevant domain is more likely to have implications for health. It may also be that supportive networks benefit women more than men because they facilitate women’s coping with distress.

10/23/2017 Yuzu: Psychology of Gender: Fourth Edition

https://reader.yuzu.com/#/books/9781317345046/cfi/6/40!/4/2/2/12/4@0:0 2/2

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Women are more likely to seek support during times of stress; thus if others are supportive, women’s needs are met.

TAKE HOME POINTS

Women have more support available to them compared to men, and women provide more support to others to men, Quantitative, or structural, measures of relationships seem to have a stronger effect on men’s than women’s health. One reason for these findings is that relationships are a double-edged sword for women—a source of support and a source of stress. Qualitative, or functional, measures of relationships may have a stronger effect on women’s than men’s health.

EFFECT OF MARRIAGE ON HEALTH “I now pronounce you man and wife.” Those are the words of the traditional marriage ceremony. Historically, marriage for women meant they became defined by their relationship to their husband; marriage for men meant they had someone to take care of the home and the children. Today, however, marriage may have a more similar meaning for women and men: gaining a partner, a person with whom to share one’s life. Today, the minister or officiator is more likely to say, “I now pronounce you husband and wife,” reflecting the similarity of marriage for men and women.