Sex biases in mental health scales: do women tend to report less serious symptoms and confide more than men?

Abstract

Women report more symptoms than men in mental health surveys. The evidence shows that psychometric biases cannot explain this significant difference. This study attempts to explore other factors that could bias the results--for example, that women are likely to report less serious symptoms than men or are less apprehensive in reporting symptoms because they have a higher tendency to report symptoms than men. A random sample of 213 women and 222 men, all married and between the age of 25 and 40, were interviewed at home in two districts of Montreal (Canada) and given the Health Opinion Survey (HOS). As has been usually found, women scored higher than men on the HOS. A variety of scales assessed the seriousness of the symptoms and the results did not indicate any sex difference in this regard. Moreover, there was no correlation between the mental health and the Jourard Self-Confidence Scale. Finally, women did not confide more about their symptoms than men, contrary to the prevalent opinion according to which they are more likely to do so. Sex differences on mental health scales do not, therefore, appear to be related to the type of bias assessed in this survey.