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ABSTRACT
Gender disadvantage is a known risk factor for common mental disorders, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Gender disadvantage and its associations with perceived psychological distress and resilience was examined in a sample of adolescent girls from a low-income urban city in India. A sample of 452 young women (M = 17.64; SD = 1.15) were administered the CAGED for gender disadvantage, the K-10 for psychological distress and CD-RISC to assess resilience. The three gender disadvantage items endorsed the most were: financial difficulties being a hindrance to opportunities (297/452; 65.7%); being criticized and ridiculed for gender-related issues (267/452; 59%); and emotional distress related to gender disadvantage (322/452; 71.3%). Of the sample, 66% (298/452) endorsed at least five gender disadvantage items. The least endorsed item in the checklist was an experience of sexual abuse 36 (7.9%). Findings from one-way ANOVA indicated higher scores on the CAGED domains and the total score were positively associated with severity of psychological distress and negatively with resilience (p < 0.01). Women with moderate-to-severe psychological distress were found to have significantly lower resilience scores compared to those with no distress or mild distress. Findings have important implications for gender-based mental health literacy and empowerment programmes for vulnerable groups.
Notes on contributors
Dr. Veena Satayanarayana, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Clinical Psychology, and a clinical psychology consultant for an Adult Psychiatry Unit, NIMHANS. Her clinical and research interest is in the broad area of women's mental health. She received training in Interpersonal Psychotherapy (from trainers of the Weissman and Klerman Group, USA) an evidence based treatment for antenatal and postpartum depression.
Dr. Prabha S. Chandra is a Professor and Head of Psychiatry Department and has been working in the field of perinatal psychiatry since 1994. She has worked at Mother Baby Psychiatry units in the UK and has special interest in the areas of pre- pregnancy and pre- conception counseling in mothers with mental health problems; interventions for mother infant bonding disorders and medication use in pregnancy and postpartum.
Manoj Kumar Sharma is an Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical Psychology, NIMHANS. His clinical and research Interest are Technology/Behavioral addiction; Emotional Dyscontrol; E-based Psychological intervention; Tobacco cessation & Intervention; Psychological test development, Dr. Sharma has obtained M.Phil (Medical & Social Psychology), Ph.D. He is running a Shut clinic (services for healthy use of technology) in NIMHANS.
H.R Sowmya, is an Senior research fellow working in a project entitled “ A Multicomponent intervention to reduce home exposure to Second Hand smoke (SHS) during pregnancy” under Dr. Prabha S Chandra, Department of Psychiatry, NIMHANS, Bangalore. Her research interests include Adolescent psycho social behaviour, Perinatal and postnatal mental health.
Dr. K. Thennarasu, Professor & Head of Department Biostatistics, NIMHANS. His research Interest are Applied multivariate analysis, Statistical applications in genetics, Survival analysis, Qualitative data analysis, Latent variable modelling, Micro array data and Cluster analysis, Quantile regression and Regression models for count data. He has obtained Ph.D in Biostatistics and PDF from St. Louis University.