title: Sex and Gender Roles in Relation to Mental Health and Allostatic Load.
abstract: Beyond male/female binaries, gender roles represent masculine and feminine traits that we assimilate and enact throughout life span development. Bem proposed that "androgynous" individuals adeptly adapt to different contexts by alternating from a strong repertoire of both masculine and feminine gender roles. By contrast, "undifferentiated" individuals may not adapt as well to social norms because of weak self-endorsed masculinity and femininity.
  
  
  
  Among 204 adults (mean [standard error] age = 40.4 [0.9] years; 70% women) working in a psychiatric hospital, we hypothesized that androgynous individuals would present better mental health and less physiological dysregulations known as allostatic load (AL) than undifferentiated individuals. AL was indexed using 20 biomarkers using the conventional "all-inclusive" formulation that ascribes cutoffs without regard for sex or an alternative "sex-specific" formulation with cutoffs tailored for each sex separately while controlling for sex hormones (testosterone, estradiol, progesterone). Well-validated questionnaires were used.
  
  
  
  Independent of sex, androgynous individuals experienced higher self-esteem and well-being and lower depressive symptoms than did undifferentiated individuals. Men manifested higher AL than did women using the all-inclusive AL index (p = .044, ηP = 0.025). By contrast, the sex-specific AL algorithm unmasked a sex by gender roles interaction for AL (p = .043, ηP = 0.048): with the highest AL levels in undifferentiated men. Analysis using a gender index based on seven gendered constructs revealed that a greater propensity toward feminine characteristics correlated only with elevated sex-specific AL (r = 0.163, p = .025).
  
  
  
  Beyond providing psychobiological evidence for Bem's theory, this study highlights how sex-specific AL formulations detect the effects of sociocultural gender.
authors.affiliation: From the Centre for Studies on Human Stress (Juster, Desrochers, Bourdon, Durand, Wan, Lupien), Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Research Centre of the Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal (Juster, Durand, Wan, Tourjman, Kouassi, Lesage, Lupien), Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Integrated Program in Neuroscience (Juster, Pruessner) and Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology (Pruessner), McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Research Centre of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute (Pruessner, Desrochers), Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Department of Psychology (Desrochers), Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Departments of Medicine and Medical Specialties (Kouassi) and Psychiatry (Tourjman, Lesage, Lupien), Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Robert-Paul
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Juster
authors.forename: Jens C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Pruessner
authors.forename: Alexandra Bisson
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Desrochers
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bourdon
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Durand
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.forename: Valérie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tourjman
authors.forename: Edouard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kouassi
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lesage
authors.forename: Sonia J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Lupien
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D052636:Allostasis / Q000502:physiology*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D003863:Depression / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D057227:Femininity; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D057228:Masculinity; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012649:Self Concept; D019529:Sexuality / Q000502:physiology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers