Kin keepers and good providers: Influence of gender socialization on well-being among USA birth cohorts

Abstract

Previous research has suggested happiness and distress differ for men and women over the life course, but little attention has focused on whether the predictors of well-being vary for each group. The second wave of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH2) data was used to study whether hypothesized differential exposure to traditional gender socialization has influenced perceptions of life achievement, global happiness and depression for adult men and women in distinct USA birth cohorts. Numerous findings illustrated similarity among cohort and gender groups in predictors of well-being. There was also evidence of a change in USA gender socialization, and determinants of the dependent variables varied according to these shifts by sex and cohort membership. For example, in the earliest born cohort, women's happiness was related to frequency of contact with relatives, consistent with the kin keeper role. Assets and income predicted depression and global happiness for older men, suggesting a link between well-being and the good provider role. In the latest born cohorts, not just androgynous, but opposite influences predominated as men and women demonstrated less evidence of traditional socialization shaping their satisfaction with achievements and psychological well-being.