Gender Role Discrepancy Stress and COVID-19 Prevention Behaviors Among Men in the United States.

PURPOSE: To examine the associations between gender role discrepancy (non-conformity to socially prescribed masculine gender role norms) and discrepancy stress (distress arising from this discrepancy) on COVID-19 prevention behaviors among men, and the potential moderating effects of race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and income on these relationships. DESIGN: A national online survey was conducted between May and June 2021. SETTING: The United States. SUBJECTS: 749 adult men residing in the United States. MEASURES: A scale measured gender role discrepancy and discrepancy stress. COVID-19 prevention outcomes were constructed and included self-reported vaccination status/intentions, social distancing, mask-wearing, and hand-sanitizing. ANALYSIS: Multivariate generalized linear models were performed in SPSS. RESULTS: Gender role discrepancy associated with greater odds of vaccination (AOR = 1.35, 95% CI = 1.02-1.78, P = .04), while discrepancy stress associated with lower odds of vaccination (AOR = .48, 95% CI = .35-.68, P < 0. 001) and mask-wearing (AOR = .54, 95% CI = .37-.79, P = .001) for men overall. Discrepancy stress's negative effect on specific COVID-19 prevention behaviors was only apparent or was amplified for men in lower income brackets (vaccination, social distancing, mask-wearing), racial/ethnic minority men (vaccination), and sexual minority men (social distancing). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that gender role discrepancy stress negatively affects men's engagement in COVID-19 prevention, particularly for men in marginalized populations.

Work-Life Balance and Teleworking: Lessons Learned during the Pandemic on Gender Role Transformation and Self-Reported Well-Being.

Lockdown during COVID-19 forced the emergence of a new scenario, with men and women teleworkers spending all their time at home. The purpose of this study is to address whether this situation has triggered a transformation in gender roles and self-reported well-being, comparing the responses of male and female respondents to the EUROFOUND April to July 2020 survey. The analysis addresses cultural differences across European regions related to diverse gender regimes, employment status, and the possibility of teleworking. It explores male and female well-being through life satisfaction, the distance between happiness and life satisfaction, and rates their feelings about work-life balance. Findings on life satisfaction display a low transformation of social roles, with women still worrying about work-life balance, while men were more affected by the health crisis. Men self-report high life satisfaction across Europe compared to women, although unexpectedly, female freelancers in Northern and Southern European had a higher life satisfaction ratio than men. Both men and women teleworkers reported difficulties with managing work-life balance at home, despite women handling core care and household tasks. These findings suggest that women would have received more support from men, as they worked harder and longer hours during the lockdown, despite their weak position in the labor market. This would seem to be a propitious setting for men to have assumed more responsibility at home, resulting in a more equal distribution of roles at home.

Are We Still a Sexist Society? Primary Socialisation and Adherence to Gender Roles in Childhood.

BACKGROUND: The internalisation of gender stereotypes has long-term impacts on the aspirations, opportunities and psychosocial well-being of people. The main objective of this study is to measure the adherence to gender roles among children, analysing the link between their roles' internalisation, the family context and the socioeconomic environment. METHOD: During the Spring 2021, a survey was carried in Rome on children aged 8-11 through a structured questionnaire. The explanatory dimensions of the analysed topics were identified and a survey questionnaire with an ad hoc administration method were developed. RESULTS: The results show a widespread internalisation of traditional gender roles among the respondents and differences by sex were found, since their acceptance is higher among boys for male roles and among girls for female roles. As the age increases, the adherence to male roles decreases for both boys and girls, while high levels of prosociality resulted in a lower adherence to female roles among boys. No significant relations were found with family and environmental variables. CONCLUSIONS: These findings show how the internalisation of gender stereotypes is already traceable at this age, and due to a different path of primary socialisation, boys and girls develop their gender identity consistent with social expectations. The lack of significant relations with environmental variables could be related to the age of the respondents, as the process of primary socialisation imbued with gender stereotypes still does not overlap secondary socialisation. These trends should be monitored during late childhood since at this age children are cognitively plastic, but also vulnerable and influenceable by surrounding stimuli. This research approach, especially if extended to a wider geographical scale, can provide important knowledge to support the relational well-being of children and equal opportunities of society as a whole.

Effect of Coronavirus Disease-2019 on the Workload of Neonatologists.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the impact of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) on the neonatology workforce, focusing on professional and domestic workloads. STUDY DESIGN: We surveyed US neonatologists in December 2020 regarding the impact of COVID-19 on professional and domestic work during the pandemic. We estimated associations between changes in time spent on types of professional and domestic work and demographic variables with multivariable logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: Two-thirds (67.6%) of the 758 participants were women. Higher proportions of women than men were in the younger age group (63.3% vs 29.3%), held no leadership position (61.4% vs 46.3%), had dependents at home (68.8% vs 56.3%), did not have a partner or other adult at home (10.6% vs 3.2%), and had an employed partner (88.1% vs 64.6%) (P < .01 for all). A higher proportion of women than men reported a decrease in time spent on scholarly work (35.0% vs 29.0%; P = .02) and career development (44.2% vs 34.9%; P < .01). A higher proportion of women than men reported spending more time caring for children (74.2% vs 55.8%; P < .01). Reduced time spent on career development was associated with younger age (aOR, 2.21; 95% CI, 1.20-4.08) and number of dependents (aOR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.01-1.45). Women were more likely to report an increase in time spent time doing domestic work (aOR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.07-2.19) and a reduction in time on self-care (aOR, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.29-0.81). CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 significantly impacts the neonatology workforce, disproportionately affecting younger, parent, and women physicians. Targeted interventions are needed to support postpandemic career recovery and advance physician contributions to the field.

Gender-related sociocultural differences and COVID-19: what influence on the effects of the pandemic?

In the first stages of the pandemic, the adverse outcomes of COVID-19 were significantly higher in men than in women most likely as the effect of biological, hormonal, metabolic differences between the two sexes. However, gender-related differences in lifestyles and social roles can also greatly influence the course of disease. To fully understand the influence of gender in the COVID-19 outbreak, the collection and dissemination of disaggregated data must be enhanced to allow a better knowledge of the effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection in men and women, not only from a biomedical point of view, but also considering the risk factors associated with the different roles that they play in the society.

Comparing the influence of gender stereotypes on well-being in Italy and Turkey during the COVID-19 lockdown.

OBJECTIVE: The hypothesis that gender stereotypes influence human behaviour and relational well-being is widely accepted in the literature. However, a comparison based on scientific assumptions is necessary to deeply understand the mechanisms activated by stereotypes in conditions of stress. The global health emergency from COVID-19 offers the opportunity to compare countries with different socio-cultural conditions, whose population has been subjected to the same stressful event during the lockdown phase. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The same questionnaire was disseminated in both Italy and Turkey during their respective lockdown phases. 140,000 interviews were collected in Italy and 10,000 in Turkey, a number big enough to obtain useful information for a comparative analysis in relation to behaviours, attitudes and well-being, also using the recursive regression models. RESULTS: The results, based on scientific data, show that gender stereotypes are much more rooted in Turkey than in Italy, where the emancipation process of the population is more advanced, producing profound social changes and decreasing differences between men and women in terms of behaviour and reactions to difficult situations, such as the present one. CONCLUSIONS: Stereotypes, which are hostile to any opposite evidence, affect individual behaviours and attitudes to the point that, within a specific context, they play a protective role against the uncertainty during a period of health emergency, inducing people to seek shelter in pre-established and widespread behavioural models. According to the data analysis, this has happened in Turkey more than in Italy. The results show that within a culture still strongly pervaded by these social conditioning, especially at the presence of low levels of education, the adherence to gender roles constitutes a "protective factor" of the individual well-being against external stress factors.