Background and objectives: Anxiety and depression are prevalent psychopathologies that affect twice as many women than men. Although the role of biological factors has been investigated, it has been argued that gender roles – defined by the feminine and masculine characteristics that society attributes to men and women – should also be considered. Gender roles are dynamic and shaped by life experiences. To date, most studies investigating the impact of gender roles on depressive and anxiety symptoms have recruited students. Here, we examined the impact of gender roles on depression and anxiety in healthy students and workers. Methods: Pooled data combining the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, State and Trait Anxiety Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory-II from 108 students (50 men) and 151 workers (75 men) aged 18–65 years old were analyzed. Gender roles were operationalized using continuous and categorical methods. Results: Higher masculinity predicted lower anxiety and depressive symptoms. The relationship between masculinity and anxiety was however only present for students. Higher feminity was associated with higher anxiety and lower depressive symptoms, and these relationships were not moderated by the student/worker status. Conclusion: Gender roles may relate to mental health differently according to the student/worker status.

Introduction: Stress, depression, and anxiety symptoms have been reported during the pandemic, with important inter-individual differences. Past cross-sectional studies have found that sex and gender roles may contribute to the modulation of one's vulnerability to develop such symptoms. This longitudinal study aimed to examine the interaction of sex and psychological gender roles on stress, depression, and anxiety symptoms in adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: Following the confinement measures in March 2020 in Montreal, stress, depression, and anxiety symptoms were assessed every 3 months (from June 2020 to March 2021) with the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale among 103 females and 50 males. Femininity and masculinity scores were assessed with the Bem Sex Role Inventory before the pandemic and were added as predictors along with time, sex, and the interactions between these variables using linear mixed models.Results: We observed similar levels of depressive symptoms between males and females, but higher levels of stress and anxious symptoms in females. No effects of sex and gender roles on depressive symptoms were found. For stress and anxiety, an interaction between time, femininity, and sex was found. At the beginning of the pandemic, females with high femininity had more stress symptoms than males with high femininity, whereas females with low femininity had more anxiety symptoms 1 year after the confinement measures compared to males with low femininity.Discussion: These findings suggest that sex differences and psychological gender roles contribute to heterogeneous patterns of stress and anxiety symptoms over time in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the incidence of distress in youth, some children show increased resilience, emphasizing the need to better understand the predictors of distress in you... This longitudinal study conducted in Quebec, Canada shows that healthy youth endorsing elevated socio-emotional vulnerability, as assessed by a composite score, report greater post-traumatic stress... Antecedentes: Aunque la pandemia de COVID-19 ha aumentado la incidencia de angustia en jóvenes, algunos niños muestran una mayor resiliencia, relevando la necesidad de comprender mejor los predicto... 背景: 尽管 COVID-19 疫情增加了青年精神痛苦的发生率, 一些儿童表现出更强的心理韧性, 这强调需要更好地了解青年精神痛苦的预测因素。目的: 本纵向研究旨在评估已知的应激相关精神病理学的社会情绪预测因素, 即焦虑敏感性, 焦虑特征, 对不确定性的不容忍和反刍, 对健康青年COVID 相关困扰的综合影响。方法: 重新联系了 92 对之前参加过 2017 年至 2019 年 (T0) 期...

The biological mechanisms involved in fear transmission within families have been scarcely investigated in humans. Here we studied (1) how children acquired conditioned fear from observing their parent, or a stranger, being exposed to a fear conditioning paradigm, and (2) the subsequent fear extinction process in these children. Eighty-three child-parent dyads were recruited. The parent was filmed while undergoing a conditioning procedure where one cue was paired with a shock (CS + Parent) and one was not (CS −). Children (8 to 12 years old) watched this video and a video of an adult stranger who underwent conditioning with a different cue reinforced (CS + Stranger). Children were then exposed to all cues (no shocks were delivered) while skin conductance responses (SCR) were recorded. Children exhibited higher SCR to the CS + Parent and CS + Stranger relative to the CS −. Physiological synchronization between the child’s SCR during observational learning and the parent’s SCR during the actual process of fear conditioning predicted higher SCR for the child to the CS + Parent. Our data suggest that children acquire fear vicariously and this can be measured physiologically. These data lay the foundation to examine observational fear learning mechanisms that might contribute to fear and anxiety disorders transmission in clinically affected families.