Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-nwzlb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T19:16:48.468Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Demoralization and gender differences in a kibbutz

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Itzhak Levav*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Medicine, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem; Division of Clinical Epidemiology, Meir Hospital, Kfar Saba, Israel; WHO/Pan American Health Organization, Washington, DC, USA
Shlomo Gilboa
Affiliation:
Department of Social Medicine, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem; Division of Clinical Epidemiology, Meir Hospital, Kfar Saba, Israel; WHO/Pan American Health Organization, Washington, DC, USA
Felipe Ruiz
Affiliation:
Department of Social Medicine, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem; Division of Clinical Epidemiology, Meir Hospital, Kfar Saba, Israel; WHO/Pan American Health Organization, Washington, DC, USA
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Itzhak Levav, WHO/Pan American Health Organization, 525 23rd Street N.W., Washington, DC 20037, USA.

Synopsis

Gender differences in demoralization (depressive symptoms) were examined in a firstever true prevalence study conducted in a kibbutz. The unusual organizational arrangements of this commune, where women have achieved higher levels of equality than in most other societies, offered a laboratory-like opportunity to test the psychosocial factors imputed as a partial explanation for the higher rates of demoralization in women.

Demoralization was studied using the 27-item scale of the Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Interview (PERI) in all of the adult population of a single kibbutz. The response rate was close to 95%. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to assess the effects of key sociodemographic and kibbutz-related variables on gender differences. The results showed that women had higher mean scores and rates even after these variables were controlled. The female: male demoralization ratio was well within the range of results obtained in non-socialist Israeli urban settings. The paper concludes with a discussion on the tentative relevance of the study results for the interpretation of the 2:1 female–male ratio of depression found in the epidemiological literature.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abramson, J. H. (1966). Emotional disorder, status inconsistency and migration. A health questionnaire in Israel. Millbank Memorial Fund Quarterly 44, 2348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adar, G. (1982). Occupational Prestige in the Kibbutz. University of Haifa, The Institute for Study and Research of the Kibbutz and the Cooperative Idea: Haifa.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briscoe, M. (1982). Sex Differences in Psychological Well-being. Psychological Medicine Monograph Supplement 1. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Brown, G. & Harris, T. (1978). The Social Origins of Depression. A Study of Psychiatric Disorders in Women. Tavistock: London.Google Scholar
Cox, S. & Radloff, L. S. (1984). Depression in relation to sex roles: Differences in learned susceptibility and precipitating factors. In Sex Roles and Psychopathology (ed. Widom, C. S.), pp. 123144. Plenum Press: New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dohrenwend, B. P. & Dohrenwend, B. S. (1976). Sex differences and psychiatric disorders. American Journal of Sociology 81, 14471454.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dohrenwend, B. P., Shrout, P. E., Egri, G. & Mendelson, F. (1980). Nonspecific psychological distress and other dimensions of psychopathology. Archives of General Psychiatry 37, 12291236.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dohrenwend, B. P., Levav, I. & Shrout, P. E. (1986). Screening scales from the Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Interview (PERI) in Community Surveys of Psychiatric Disorders (ed. Weissman, M. M., Myers, J. K. and Ross, C. E.), pp. 349376. Rutgers University Press: Brunswick NJ.Google Scholar
Dohrenwend, B. P., Levav, I., Shrout, P. E., Link, B. G., Skodol, A. & Martin, J. (1987). Life stress and psychopathology. American Journal of Community Psychology 15, 677715.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frank, J. (1973). Persuasion and Healing. Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore, MD.Google Scholar
Gerson, M. (1971). Women in the kibbutz. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 41, 566573.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gerson, M. (1978). Family, Women and Socialization in the Kibbutz. Lexington Books: San Diego, CA.Google Scholar
Hammen, C. L. & Peters, S. D. (1977). Differential responses to male and female depressive reactions. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 45, 9941001.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jenkins, R. (1985). Sex Differences in Minor Psychiatric Morbidity. Psychological Medicine Supplement 7. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Levav, I. & Abramson, J. E. (1984 a). A community study of emotional distress in Jerusalem. Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences 21, 1936.Google ScholarPubMed
Levav, I. & Abramson, J. E. (1984 b). A community study of emotional distress in Jerusalem. Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences 22, 291301.Google Scholar
Levav, I. & Aviram, U. (1986). Community surveys of emotional disorders in Israel: an updated review. In Community Surveys of Psychiatric Disorders (ed. Weissman, M. M., Myers, J. K. and Ross, C. E.), pp. 239256. Rutgers University Press: Brunswick, NJ.Google Scholar
Link, B. & Dohrenwend, B. P. (1980). Formulation of hypotheses about the true prevalence of demoralization in the United States. In Mental Illness in the United States – Epidemiological Estimates (ed. Dohrenwend, B. P., Dohrenwend, B. S., Gould, M. Schwartz, Link, B. G., Neugebauer, R. and Wunsch-Hitzig, R.), pp. 114132. Praeger: New York.Google Scholar
Miller, P. & Ingham, J. (1976). Friends, confidants, and symptoms. Social Psychiatry 11, 5158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (1987). Sex differences in unipolar depression: evidence and theory. Psychological Bulletin 2, 259282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palgi, M. & Rosner, M. (1983). Equality between sexes in the kibbutz: regression or changed meanings. In Sexual Equality: The Israeli Kibbutz Tests the Theories (ed. Palgi, M., Blasi, J. R., Rosner, M., and Safir, M.), pp. 255296. Norwood Editions: Norwood, PA.Google Scholar
Palgi, M., Blasi, J. R., Rosner, M. & Safir, M. (eds.) (1983). Sexual Equality: The Israeli Kibbutz Tests the Theories. Norwood Editions: Norwood, PA.Google Scholar
Polliak, M. R. (1971). The relationship between Cornell Medical Index scores and attendance rates. Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners 21, 453459.Google Scholar
Radloff, L. & Monroe, M. M. (1978). Sex differences in helplessness with implication for depression. In Career Development and Counseling of Women (ed. Hansen, L. and Safroza, R. S.), pp. 199221. Charles C. Thomas: Springfield, IL.Google Scholar
Robert, R. E. & Vernon, S. W. (1981). Usefulness of the PERI Demoralization Scale to screen for psychiatric disorder in a community sample. Psychiatry Research 5, 183193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosner, M. (1969). Summary of Research on the Women Members of the Kibbutz. Social Research Center: Givat Haviva. (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Rosner, M. & Palgi, M. (1986). The Equality Between the Sexes in the Kibbutz – Retreat or Change in Meaning. The University of Haifa, The Institute for Research in the Kibbutz and the Cooperative Idea: Haifa. (Hebrew).Google Scholar
SAS (1985). Users' Guide: Basics, Version 5. Statistics. SAS Institute Inc.: Cary, NC.Google Scholar
Seligman, E. P. (1975). Helplessness: On Depression, Development and Death. W. H. Freeman: San Francisco, CA.Google Scholar
Shrout, P. E., Dohrenwend, B. P. & Levav, I. (1986). A discriminant rule for screening cases of diverse diagnostic types: preliminary results. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 54, 314319.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shuch Mednick, M. T. (1975). Social change and sex-role inertia: the case of the kibbutz. In Women and Achievement. Social and Motivational Analysis (ed. Mednick, M. T. Shuch, Tangri, S. Schwartz and Hoffman, L. W.), pp. 85103. Hemisphere Publishing: Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Shur, S., Beit-Hallahmi, B., Blasi, J. R. & Rabin, A. I. (1982). The Kibbutz: A Bibliography of Scientific and Professional Publications in English. Norwood Editions: Darby, PA.Google Scholar
Talmon, Y. (1972). Family and Community in the Kibbutz. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Tiger, L. & Shepher, J. (1975). Women in the Kibbutz. Harcourt Brace & Jovanovich: New York.Google Scholar
Tiger, L. & Shepher, J. (1983). Conclusions from the women in the kibbutz research. In Sexual Equality: The Israeli Kibbutz Tests the Theories (ed. Palgi, M., Blasi, J. R., Rosner, M. and Safir, M.), pp. 2744. Norwood Editions: Norwood, PA.Google Scholar
Vernon, S. W. & Roberts, R. E. (1981). Measuring nonspecific psychological distress and other dimensions of psychopathology. Further observations on the problem. Archives of General Psychiatry 36, 12391247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wamosher, Z. (1972). The association between emotional disorders and the rate of visits to the family physician. Harefuah 56, 359361. (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Weissman, M. M. & Klerman, G. L. (1977). Sex differences and the epidemiology of depression. Archives of General Psychiatry 34, 98111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weissman, M. M. & Klerman, G. L. (1985). Gender and depression. Trends in Neurosciences Reference edition. 2, 416420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar