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Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 12/2007

01-12-2007 | ORIGINAL PAPER

Idealized cultural beliefs about gender: implications for mental health

Authors: Ramaswami Mahalingam, Benita Jackson

Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology | Issue 12/2007

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Abstract

Background

In this paper, we examined the relationship between culture-specific ideals (chastity, masculinity, caste beliefs) and self-esteem, shame and depression using an idealized cultural model proposed by Mahalingam (2006, In: Mahalingam R (ed) Cultural psychology of immigrants. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, pp 1–14).

Methods

Participants were from communities with a history of extreme male-biased sex ratios in Tamilnadu, India (N = 785).

Results

We hypothesized a dual-process model of self-appraisals suggesting that achieving idealized cultural identities would increase both self-esteem and shame, with the latter leading to depression, even after controlling for key covariates. We tested this using structural equation modeling. The proposed idealized cultural identities model had an excellent fit (CFI  = 0.99); the effect of idealized identities on self-esteem, shame and depression differed by gender.

Conclusions

Idealized beliefs about gender relate to psychological well-being in gender specific ways in extreme son preference communities. We discuss implications of these findings for future research and community-based interventions.
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Metadata
Title
Idealized cultural beliefs about gender: implications for mental health
Authors
Ramaswami Mahalingam
Benita Jackson
Publication date
01-12-2007
Publisher
D. Steinkopff-Verlag
Published in
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology / Issue 12/2007
Print ISSN: 0933-7954
Electronic ISSN: 1433-9285
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-007-0250-8

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