Sleep disorders, anxiety, depression: women would have paid a heavier price for confinement than men due to a higher level of empathy. An empathy that would have caused more worry and increased the burden of caring for others.
- Women suffered more from sleep disturbances, anxiety and depression during the spring 2020 lockdown
- This difference compared to men could be explained by a higher level of empathy and concern for others.
Women would have suffered more than men from confinement due to the coronavirus crisis. And it is partly because they are the ones who bear the burden of caring for their families and of stricter respect for health rules. This is shown by a study carried out in Canada by researchers from the University of Calgary with the Hotchkiss Brain Institute published in Frontiers in Global Women’s Health.
This study is based on 573 participants, 112 men and 459 women with an average age of 25.6 years surveyed online between March 23 and June 7, 2020. If more than 66% of them reported a poor sleep quality and 39% increased symptoms of anxiety, these disorders were more common among women.
“An Extra Load”
“The women reported more anxiety and depression and their symptoms got worse over time,” said Dr. Veronica Guadagni, post-doctoral researcher at the Cumming School of Medicine, who added that she was not surprised by these results. “Women carry an additional burden taking care of their families and managing critical situations,” she adds, referring to their ability to take on the role of “caregivers” and the worries that come with it, a markers of differences in gender roles and norms.
Take care of others
Words confirmed by the study which shows higher scores in women for empathy, the ability to understand the emotions of others and to take care of them. The reverse of this empathy being, because of the feeling of responsibility it generates, a greater sensitivity to anxiety, depression and fragility in the face of the trauma caused by the unprecedented nature of this health crisis.
The other lesson of this study, no doubt also linked to the greater empathy shown by women, is that they were much more attentive than men to compliance with public health directives such as hand washing, social distancing and wearing a mask.
This work carried out during the spring 2020 confinement period in Canada prompts its authors to “hope that it will trigger certain ideas” such as the realization that some suffer more than others in such circumstances, which leads to “more recognition and accommodation for women from their partners, employers and institutions”.
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