Psychology in Russia: State of Art (Aug 2017)
Androgyny in dentists: The contribution of masculinity and femininity to mental health and well-being
Abstract
Background. A dentist’s professional activity requires a high level of personality traits that are usually regarded as a combination of both female and male traits. Androgynous gender identity corresponds to dentists’ professional requirements and allows the dentists to retain mental stability and psychological well-being. Objective. The goal of this study is to determine the specificity of the androgynous identity in dentists in the context of gender differences as indicators of mental health and subjective well-being. Design. The first stage of the research covered 129 dentists of both sexes to reveal their androgynous gender type using the Bem Sex Role Inventory. During the second stage, 117 androgynous dentists were studied using the SCL-90-R and Brief Subjective Well-being Questionnaire in an effort to reveal the specificity of the dentists’ mental health and self-esteem. Results. According to the results, individuals with an androgynous type of gender identity constitute the largest part of dentists (90.70 %), regardless of their biological sex. The expression of masculinity does not statistically differ from the expression of femininity within the androgynous sample. Regardless of their sex, these dentists are characterized by a higher level of mental health. No significant differences were revealed between androgynous men and androgynous women in their subjective well-being indicators — self-estimation of health, satisfaction with material status and success motivation. Conclusion. We concluded that androgyny is the most common type of gender identity in the men and women engaged in dentistry. The basic gender characteristic in the structure of androgynous identity in dentists is masculinity, which is closely interrelated with mental health and subjective well-being regardless of biological sex.
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