Gender Differences in Mental Health
Abstract
The scientific literature is still in a state of complex controversy about truth of the Gender differences in terms of mental health and mental illness. This literatures were influenced for a long time by views of senior scholars that highlight clear biases in favor of male superiority psychologically and mentally throughout history without tangible scientific evidences.
Scientific community witnessed a large leap through successive studies to reveal reality of gender differences. The current research showed concepts of mental health and mental illness, and signs of mental health impairment. Currently, mental illnesses are among the most common causes of financial burden in the fields in order to secure treatment and scientific research on them .
The gender difference in mental health is one of the rare topics raised in the Arab scientific literatures, and the matter is attributed to the difficulty of conducting statistics compatible with the Arab environment, especially in the issue of mental health is still among the topics That causes embarrassment, stigma and shame for its owner, which hindered the possibility of being put up and taken up in the field.
There is a scientific team that supports the difference, while the other doesn't find real differences.
Cultural impact had its role also on the individual - especially on the woman - by increasing the psychological burden on her and in raising the possibility of developing mental illness in terms of considering that she is a gender (2) or less valuable than men, in the sense that it's devoted to domestic work only, and despite change This role tremendously over time and in the present time and in prominent capabilities of women at all levels, professional and practical, but the pressure is still on them, which causes many crises.
Conclusion: there are gender differences in quality of mental disorders, but finding gender differences requires further studies and increasing individual and collective awareness of mental health through media and educational institutions .
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