PHYSICAL AND PSYCHIATRIC CORRELATES OF GENDER DISCRIMINATION - AN APPLICATION OF THE SCHEDULE OF SEXIST EVENTS

We tested the model that sexist discrimination, measured by the Schedu le of Sexist Events (SSE), would account for additional variance in wo men's physical and psychiatric symptoms, above and beyond that account ed for by generic stressors. A series of hierarchical regression analy ses, predicting symptoms on 10 different symptom outcome measures from generic stress and sexist stress (discrimination) were conducted, wit h the generic stressors entered on the first step and sexist discrimin ation on the second. Results revealed that sexist discrimination contr ibuted significantly to the variance in women's symptoms, accounting f or additional variance in those symptoms. Furthermore, sexist discrimi nation accounted for more of the variance than did generic stressors i n premenstrual, depressive, obsessive-compulsive, somatic, and total p sychiatric and physical symptoms. These findings varied with the age a nd ethnicity of the women and with the symptom measure used, but nonet heless suggest that sexist discrimination plays a significant role in women's most prevalent symptoms.