Hackett, Ruth A;
Hunter, Myra S;
Jackson, Sarah E;
(2024)
The relationship between gender discrimination and wellbeing in middle-aged and older women.
PLoS ONE
, 19
(3)
, Article e0299381. 10.1371/journal.pone.0299381.
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Abstract
Background: Emerging evidence suggests that perceived gender discrimination negatively impacts mental wellbeing in young women.// Purpose: This study explored whether a similar relationship exists in middle-aged and older women.// Methods: A total of 3081 women (aged ≥52 years) from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing provided data on perceived gender discrimination in 2010/11. Depressive symptoms, loneliness, quality of life and life satisfaction were assessed in 2010/11 and in 2016/17.// Results: Perceived gender discrimination was reported by 282 (9.2%) participants. Cross-sectionally, women who perceived gender discrimination reported more depressive symptoms (β = 0.34, 95% CI 0.11 to 0.57) and had higher loneliness scores (β = 0.14, 95% CI 0.08 to 0.20) than women who did not perceive gender discrimination. They also reported significantly lower quality of life (β = −2.50, 95% CI −3.49 to −1.51) and life satisfaction (β = −1.07, 95% CI −1.81 to −0.33). Prospectively, perceived gender discrimination was associated with greater loneliness scores (β = 0.08, 95% CI 0.02 to 0.14), as well as lower ratings of quality of life (β = −0.98, 95% CI −0.09 to −1.86), and life satisfaction (β = −1.04, 95% CI −0.34 to −1.74), independent of baseline values.// Conclusions: Middle-aged and older women who perceive gender discrimination report poorer mental wellbeing than those who do not perceive discrimination. Further, this type of discrimination may be predictive of declining mental wellbeing over time. These findings highlight the need for interventions to target gender-based discrimination to improve the wellbeing of women at mid- and older age.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The relationship between gender discrimination and wellbeing in middle-aged and older women |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0299381 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299381 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2024 Hackett et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | Middle Aged, Humans, Female, Aged, Quality of Life, Sexism, Longitudinal Studies, Loneliness, Aging |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Behavioural Science and Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10190294 |
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