Normative Masculinity and Differences in Mental Health Reporting Following the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Two years after its peak, the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects continue to echo through society. The results of a large-scale self-reported survey in the Canadian province of British Columbia showed that, in 2021, women reported significantly higher rates of mental health deterioration than men. This paper proposes the hypothesis that this difference could be the result of an unwillingness of men to report on mental health struggles due to traditional views of masculinity. This paper uses the dependent variable of the difference between male and female reported rates of mental health deterioration to help solve this question. The subject of examination is British Columbia, which for the purposes of analysis is divided into 16 regions. This is not a causal paper, and instead it examines correlations with numerous stressors and proxies for conservatism and traditional gender norms in society. Ultimately, this research finds that there is a statistically-significant positive correlation between the aforementioned difference and political conservatism, and statistically-significant negative correlations with reported experiences of friendship loss, fears for one’s own health, and fear’s for one’s family’s health, in men. None of these correlations are statistically-significant for women. There is also a statistically-significant negative correlation with the proportion of the median male income in a region that women earn. These findings seem tentatively to support the thesis’ initial hypothesis, but further research is required to positively identify causes.