Mental health in a gendered context: Gendered community effect on depression and problem drinking

Abstract

Socio-economic features of a community influence people's health. However, not all inhabitants are affected similarly. The present study explores gendered contextual effects on problem drinking and depression with the differential exposure, vulnerability and expression hypotheses of the social stress model in mind. Analyses are based on the pooled data of the Belgian Health Interview Survey 2001 and 2004 (N=21.367 respondents, N=589 municipalities). Results reveal that living in an area with high unemployment is more detrimental for women in terms of depression, but has the same impact on men and women when problem drinking is the outcome. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.