Gender Gap: Women's abilities doubted twice as often

Last fall, AXA surveyed around 31,000 people between the ages of 18 and 74 from 16 different countries about their mental well-being. The results show: Even before anxiety and depression, stress troubles the respondents. Although Switzerland ranks in the middle of the international stress statistics, more than half (55 percent) suffer from moderate to severe symptoms - in the same survey a year ago, it was only one in three people.

In an international comparison of countries on mental health, however, the Swiss are doing well overall: after Thailand, France and Mexico, Switzerland follows in fourth place. Turkey, Japan and Italy bring up the rear. Switzerland is also in the middle of the pack when it comes to mental illnesses such as depression or anxiety, although around one in four people (26 percent) complain of mental health problems in this country. Mental health problems are most common among respondents from the USA (40 percent).

Gender Gap: Women are under greater pressure

With the exception of China and Japan, the study reveals stark differences between women's mental health and men's in all regions, with women respondents across all age groups reporting poorer well-being. For example, 24 percent more women than men reported feeling lonely, and 22 percent more female respondents suffer from stress. In addition, women find it more difficult to meet the demands of their environment (+29 percent) and on average report slightly lower levels of self-acceptance and enjoyment of life.

The study found an important reason for this gender gap in the decidedly greater pressure to which many women are exposed in various areas of life: Because of their gender, for example, they are almost twice as likely to receive unwanted comments, and their abilities are regularly doubted to the same extent. In the survey, 69 percent of women who are subjected to pressure because of their gender said they felt lonely. By comparison, the figure for non-affected women was not half as high, at 30 percent. At the same time, affected women are almost three times as likely to have a negative body image and have around a quarter lower self-acceptance and joie de vivre scores. At the same time, the stress factor is fueled among affected women in that they suffer more than three times as often from unfairly distributed domestic responsibilities and thus have less time for themselves (see infographic 1).

Online time harms young people in particular

In addition to the differences between the sexes, the new study also reveals clear trends between the age groups surveyed. For example, the results across all regions show that mental well-being also increases with age. Self-acceptance increases and the risk potential of mental health problems decreases at the same time. While older people are generally more stable in both their private and professional lives, almost two-thirds of young people between 18 and 24 are particularly troubled by an uncertain future and loneliness. Almost half of all respondents in this age category have a negative body image (see Infographic 2). They are also more concerned about advancing climate change than the older study participants.

As the study results also reveal, these concerns are additionally influenced by another factor. For example, 38 percent of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 said their mental health was being severely negatively affected by technological dependency, i.e., by the time they spend online and on social media. Among those over 45, just under a quarter of respondents still feel stressed by online media; among those over 55, the figure is just 18 percent.

The comparison of young people with and without negative technological dependency makes the strong influence of this factor on general well-being clear: The number of lonely young people increases by almost half when they are negatively affected by their time online and in social media, and around a third more see themselves facing an uncertain future. They are also more than twice as likely to have a negative body image and their self-acceptance is also significantly lower (see infographic 3).

Source: AXA