Gender, Race, and the Self in Mental Health and Crime
- 1 May 2006
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Social Problems
- Vol. 53 (2) , 161-185
- https://doi.org/10.1525/sp.2006.53.2.161
Abstract
Strong and consistent gender differences exist in mental health problems and crime. Females suffer more from internalizing problems, including depression and anxiety, while males predominate in externalizing problems, which include delinquency, aggression, and substance abuse. These gender differences vary by race, however. Although gender differences in externalizing problems remain considerable across race, gender differences in internalizing problems are far greater for whites than African Americans. In explaining these patterns, our perspective differs from prior theories in both mental health and criminology by focusing on the intersection of gender and race in relation to both internalizing and externalizing problems. We propose that gender and race affect internalizing and externalizing problems through their impact on schemas about self-salience, which refer to beliefs about the importance of the self versus the collective in social relations. In testing this perspective, we examine a sample of white and African American males and females in adolescence, the point at which these patterns arise. We find that gender and race interact to shape schemas about self-salience. Further, these differences in self-salience help to explain the disparities by gender and race in internalizing and externalizing problems.Keywords
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