Open Access

ARTICLE

Structural Gender Inequality and Mental Health among Chinese Men and Women

by Lei Yang^1,*, Zhipeng Sun^2,3

1 Department of Sociology, School of Ethnology and Sociology, Minzu University of China, Beijing, 100081, China
2 Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science, Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, 3508TC, The Netherlands
3 Shanghai CSW&MSM Center (SCMC), Shanghai, 200023, China

* Corresponding Author: Lei Yang. Email:

International Journal of Mental Health Promotion 2023, 25(1), 31-43. https://doi.org/10.32604/ijmhp.2022.021375

Received 10 January 2022; Accepted 21 February 2022; Issue published 29 November 2022

Abstract

Little is known about the association between structural gender inequality and health in patriarchal China. This study employed a sample from the Chinese Women’s Social Status, consisting of 26,139 participants aged 18 and 70 years (13,494 women and 12,645 men). Structural gender inequality was assessed at the macro-, meso-, and micro-levels. Mental health was measured by the summed scores of eight questions on depressive symptoms. Multilevel linear regression was applied for analysis. Results showed that total sex ratio at birth was associated with poorer mental health among women and men but sex ratio at birth of the second-born child predicted better mental health. Gender inequality at meso-level resulted in poorer mental health and gender inequality at microlevel was associated with poorer mental health both for men and women. Eliminating structural gender inequality promotes populations’ mental health in China.

---

Keywords

---