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Sex Differences

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Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research
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Synonyms

Gender differences (in quality of life)

Definition

Sex differences in quality of life refer to discrepancies of quality of life between males and females. Important aspects of gender gaps include differences in mental health, physical health, and subjective well-being. Males tend to report a higher level of life satisfaction than females, while females usually express more happiness. Such gender patterns and gaps may vary across races, life courses, and cultures.

Description

Three aspects of quality of life will be discussed here, including mental health, physical health, and subjective well-being (perceived quality of life).

Mental Health

Women consistently report greater negative emotions, such as distress and anxiety (McDonough and Walters 2001) throughout their life span (Macintyre et al. 1996; Rieker and Bird 2005).

Some researchers doubt this gender difference in negative emotions to be artifact of emotional expressiveness. Indeed, there is some evidence that men keep...

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Correspondence to Wan-Chi Chen .

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Chen, WC. (2023). Sex Differences. In: Maggino, F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17299-1_2661

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