Gove's Specific Sex-Role Theory of Mental Illness: A Research Note

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Gove's (1972) specific sex-role theory of mental illness suggests that although women have an overall higher rate of mental illness than men (Gove and Tudor, 1973; Gove, 1979a), only married women are more likely to be mentally ill than men; women in all other marital statuses are no more likely, or are less likely, to be mentally ill than men (Gove, 1972, 1978). Although the previous literature on sex and marital status differences reviewed by Gove (1972, 1979b) generally supports this pattern of findings, it is largely restricted to studies of treated mental illness. This paper examines data on untreated mental illness from three national surveys using the operational definitions of mental illness cited by Gove and Tudor (1973) and Gove et al. (1976). Analyses of these data sets, using these definitions of mental illness, show that women are more likely to be mentally ill than men regardless of marital status.

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit: