The current dissertation examined gender, cultural, and ontogenetic dimensions in the dreams of Canadians. Normative studies in the United States, Europe, and other countries have documented normative data including gender differences and compared their findings to American data to investigate cultural differences. The purpose of the present study was to extend research of this nature by establishing normative data for Canadians. Furthermore, age differences in dreams have been mostly investigated for females, with only a few studies with males, and have used a variety of methodologies and age ranges. Another objective of this study was to document, for the first time, the ontogenetic pattern of the main dream content categories from adolescence to old age for males and females. The rigorous and detailed dream diary method was used to collect dreams which were analyzed using the Hall and Van de Castle method of content analysis. The first paper consisted of two dreams each from 150 male and female young adult Canadians, ages 18-24, totaling 600 dream reports. Findings provided support for the threat simulation theory as there were more negative than positive themes overall. Furthermore, dream gender differences were consistent with those in waking and the similarity of Canadian and American culture was reflected in dream imagery, supporting the continuity hypothesis of dream formation. The final two papers examined the ontogenetic patterns of dream content for females and males respectively. The second paper consisted of 75 females across 5 age groups from adolescence to old age (12-17, 18-24, 25-39, 40-64, and 65-85) and the third paper consisted of 50 males across the same age groups with the exception of 31 males in the oldest group (65-85). The ontogenetic patterns of dream content from adolescence to old age reflected waking developmental patterns as proposed by social theories, neurobiological research, and recognized features of aging, supporting the continuity hypothesis. In terms of the theoretical implications, this work provides support for the hypothesis of the threat simulation theory pertaining to the prevalence of negative content in dreams. It also provides support for the continuity between waking and dreaming hypothesis of dream formation. Implications of these findings regarding our understanding of the sources of dream formation are described. Finally, limitations and future directions, for research examining the evolution of gender differences across the lifespan, are discussed.

AbstractThe following work is driven foremost by the confounding fact that so few men are seekinghelp concerning mental illness, even though men, by far, are the dominating gender instatistics regarding suicide. Upon reflection a line of questions arose mainly regardingwhether gender based differences could play a role in the way men and women expressmental illness and especially whether, and to what extent, gender affects treatment thereof.Since interviewing people with mental illness would demand quite a lot of ethicalconsideration, and with regards to the extent of work a study of this sort would require, otheroptions had to be considered. Therefore, in order to investigate the subject further fourseparate interviews were conducted with therapists whose methods are based on a variety ofpsychological theories and methods. The interviews were based on semi-structuredinterview-guides containing questions about gender differentials in patients, gender basedapproaches to, as well as gender based expressions of, mental illness. The empirical materialwas later divided into relevant themes to create a basis for analysis. The analysis was formedby theories and research concerning gender constructivism, hegemonic masculinity andgender in therapy. The findings showed that gender and gender roles do play a part in how thetherapist conceive the patient and her problems. The informants expressed experiences oftraditional gender roles affecting the patient's ability to engage in therapy in an ideal way - theideal being comparable to characteristics associated with traditional femininity. Among theinformant was a consensus that the male gender role is undergoing reform, and thus becomingmore inclusive to gender identities unconform with traditional masculinity. Furthermore twomain experiences of gender differences was identified, both comparable to normative genderdiscourse regarding male and female characteristics. Finally a third theme lead to discussionconcerning therapist-patient dynamics in light of respectively gender-based or feministnarrative therapy.

Various studies have found differences in males’ and females’ mathematical achievement, with boys’ achievement scores higher than girls’. However, the difference in mathematical achievement does not appear to exist yet when children are younger (e.g., in preschool or kindergarten), but rather we begin to observe this gender achievement gap in middle school and high school. These findings raise the question about what is happening in pre- and elementary school that may cause this achievement gap to appear. Research suggests that there is a relationship between the amount of teachers’ math talk and preschool children’s conventional mathematical knowledge. Studies suggest that teachers’ math talk is significantly related to the growth of mathematical knowledge. The amount of input boys and girls receive from preschool teachers’ can be one of the causes of the gap in their math achievement in later years. Various studies measured the amount of teachers’ math talk in the classroom however there are very few research that investigated the influence of gender on the amount of preschool teachers’ math talk. The current study investigated the effects of children’s gender on preschool teachers’ math talk. The purpose of the study was to investigate the amount of preschool teachers’ math talk with children as well as the effect of children’s gender on the amount and type of preschool teachers’ math talk. The data was collected as part of another study which aimed to create a database of quality early childhood practices. The participants of the current study were 2 teachers (1 teacher and 1 assistant teacher) in a preschool classroom and the 16 (7 girls. 9 boys) children in their classroom. Permissions were obtained from teachers and children’s families. The teachers were videotaped during the free play time and the videos were coded for the amount and type of math talk using Observational Coding Matrix which is a checklist of 8 different math categories. The results showed a statistically significant difference for the amount of total math talk that boys received comparing to girls, in favor of the boys. Although, boys received more math talk in most of the math categories, the operation was the type in which the gender difference was statistically significant. Although the sample size was small the gender difference was statistically significant, which shows the importance of studies that investigate the gender differences in teachers’ math talk.

BACKGROUND: There are limited studies that have explored smoking predictors among Ugandan adolescents over time. This study investigated factors influencing smoking among Ugandan adolescents between 2007 and 2011. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study using secondary data from 2007 and 2011 Ugandan Global Youth Tobacco Surveys (n=7,505). Data analysis included chi-square and multivariate logistic regression. The level of statistical significance was set at p< 0.05. RESULTS: Of the participants, 49.9% (n=3,746) were smokers. Over time, there was a reduction in the prevalence of smoking among boys (10.8% vs. 6.1%; p=0.01), but not among girls (5.0% vs. 4.8%; p=0.48). After controlling for potential confounders, having both parents smoking (OR=7.52; 95%CI: 1.23-45.91), close friends smoking (OR= 6.59, 95%CI: 3.70-11.74) and exposure to second-hand smoke at home (OR= 3.69, 95%CI: 2.0-6.74) were associated with increased odds of smoking among all Ugandan adolescents. CONCLUSION: Given the observed gender differences in smoking trends, it is recommended that more attention be given to motivating adolescent girls not to take up smoking or, for those who have already started smoking, to quit. Furthermore, in addition to greater enforcement of the ban in public smoking, there is a need for public education to promote the voluntary adoption of smoke-free homes. / Dissertation (MPH)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH) / MPH / Unrestricted

Fairness is an important topic that has captured the interest of researchers in many fields. Looking at behavioural and experimental economics, various methods have been used to shed the light on fairness. One of the most recognizable ways is through the use of the ultimatum game. In this paper, we aimed to look at fairness considerations by utilizing this game, while also highlighting gender and culture as factors of importance. Two models, specifically Rabin’s reciprocity model and Fehr and Schmidt’s inequity aversion model, in addition to various research papers on the topics of gender and culture, were used as the cornerstones for this paper. The experimental design was a replication of the ultimatum game, which was carried out online. Results showed that there were noticeable effects from both gender and culture on the behaviour of the participants in the game. However, the results were not statistically significant enough to be considered as determining factors in regard to why individuals behave in a specific manner in the game. Since research from the field has reached mixed conclusions, we can say that making inferences about human behaviour is harder than one might think.

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Anxiety is the most common mental health diagnosis for adolescents. Among important etiological factors are parent anxiety and parenting behavior, which can increase anxiety in adolescents. Adolescent anxiety can also act as a source of stress for parents that then increases parent anxiety and negative parenting behaviors. Using the Family Stress Model, this study aims to examine the longitudinal and bidirectional relationship between parent and adolescent anxiety with parental psychological control acting as a mediator. Structural equation modeling was used to examine these relationships across five waves of data for 457 families. Adolescents (51.86% female, mean age 13.34 at wave one) and their parents (352 fathers and 457 mothers) participated in this study. While results did not fully support the hypotheses, interesting relationships among study variables indicated the importance of adolescent gender and development when studying the impact of parents and parenting on anxiety. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed.

In recent years, stress has become one of the fastest growing societal problems. According to previous researches women tend to be exposed at a higher risk of developing stress-related illnesses than men. The purpose of our study is to investigate through qualitative semi-structured interviews how gender differences in the experience and management of stress are expressed among university students at Örebro University. The study has three different questions designed to answer the purpose, about management, experience, and gender differences. We have analyzed our empirical material using Bourdieu's theories about the masculine domination and habitus. Previous research in the field shows that women tend to feel more stressed but also, that they handle stress in a different way, more emotionally than men. However, one study shows that women, regardless of strategy, tend to handle stress more than men in general. The result of this study was similar to previous research, that women feel more stressed and seem more aware of how they handle stress and the feelings around it. Our female respondents showed a clear pattern that they managed stress through emotional support, but also throught physical activity. The latter which is considered more stereotypical for a man. / Stress har de senaste åren kommit att bli ett av de snabbast växande samhällsproblemen. Det är ett känt faktum att kvinnor löper högre risk att drabbas av sjukdomar som är relaterade till stress än män. Syftet med vår studie är att genom kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer undersöka om det finns könsskillnader i upplevelse och hantering av stress, och isåfall hur det kan komma till uttryck bland universitetsstudenter vid Örebro universitet. Studien har tre olika frågeställningar som är utformade för att svara på syftet, om hantering, upplevelse och slutligen, könsskillnader. Med hjälp av Bourdieus teori kring Den manliga dominansen och habitus har vi analyserat vårt empiriska material. Tidigare forskning på området visar att kvinnor tenderar att uppleva mer stress men även att de hanterar stressen på ett annat sätt, mer känslomässigt än män. En studie visar dock på att kvinnor oavsett strategi tenderar att hantera stressen mer än män över lag. Resultatet av denna studie blev liknande tidigare forskning, att kvinnor uppger att de upplever sig mer stressade och verkar mer medvetna om hur de hanterar stress och känslorna kring det. Det gick tydligt att urskilja ett mönster hos våra kvinnliga respondenter: de hanterade stress genom känslomässigt stöd, men också genom fysisk aktivitet. Det senare som anses vara mer stereotypiskt för en man.

Background: Previous reports have suggested that there may be gene×gender interaction for bipolar disorder (BD)-associated genes/loci at 22q11-13. This study aimed to investigate the associations of SEZ6L genetic variants with bipolar disorder I (BD-I) and to examine gender-specific genetic associations. Methods: 605 BD-I Caucasian cases and 1034 controls were selected from the publicly available data of the Whole Genome Association Study of BD. To increase power, an additional 362 Caucasian controls were added to this study from the Genome-Wide Association Study of Schizophrenia. In total, 605 BD-I cases and 1396 controls (934 males and 1067 females) were available for genetic association analysis of 118 SNPs within the SEZ6L gene using PLINK software. Results: 16 SNPs showed significant gene x gender interactions influencing BD-I (P<0.01). In addition, significant differences in the distribution of the alleles for these 16 SNPs were observed between the female BD-I patients and healthy controls (P<0.015) but no significant associations were found for the male sample (P>0.05). The SNP rs4822691 showed the strongest association with BD-I in the female sample (P=2.18×10-4) and the strongest gene×gender interaction in influencing BD-I (P=9.16×10 -5). Limitations: The findings of this study need to be replicated in independent samples. Conclusions: This is the first demonstration that genetic variants in the SEZ6L gene are associated with BD-I in female patients and provides additional compelling evidence for genetic variation at 22q11-13 that influences BD-I risk. The present findings highlight the gene x gender interactions modifying BD-I susceptibility.

Background: Previous reports have suggested that there may be gene×gender interaction for bipolar disorder (BD)-associated genes/loci at 22q11-13. This study aimed to investigate the associations of SEZ6L genetic variants with bipolar disorder I (BD-I) and to examine gender-specific genetic associations. Methods: 605 BD-I Caucasian cases and 1034 controls were selected from the publicly available data of the Whole Genome Association Study of BD. To increase power, an additional 362 Caucasian controls were added to this study from the Genome-Wide Association Study of Schizophrenia. In total, 605 BD-I cases and 1396 controls (934 males and 1067 females) were available for genetic association analysis of 118 SNPs within the SEZ6L gene using PLINK software. Results: 16 SNPs showed significant gene x gender interactions influencing BD-I (P<0.01). In addition, significant differences in the distribution of the alleles for these 16 SNPs were observed between the female BD-I patients and healthy controls (P<0.015) but no significant associations were found for the male sample (P>0.05). The SNP rs4822691 showed the strongest association with BD-I in the female sample (P=2.18×10-4) and the strongest gene×gender interaction in influencing BD-I (P=9.16×10 -5). Limitations: The findings of this study need to be replicated in independent samples. Conclusions: This is the first demonstration that genetic variants in the SEZ6L gene are associated with BD-I in female patients and provides additional compelling evidence for genetic variation at 22q11-13 that influences BD-I risk. The present findings highlight the gene x gender interactions modifying BD-I susceptibility.