EVERYDAY STRESSORS AND GENDER DIFFERENCES IN DAILY DISTRESS

This article examines gender differences in psychological distress by assessing men's and women's experience of daily stressors and psycholo gical distress in a sample of 166 married couples. Respondents complet ed a structured daily diary each day over the course of 42 days. Resul ts showed that women reported a higher prevalence of high distress day s and a lower prevalence of distress-free days than men. Gender differ ences in daily distress were attributable largely to women experiencin g more onsets of distress episodes rather than being more likely to co ntinue in a distress state from one day to subsequent days. Results fr om hierarchical linear models (HLM) indicated that the significant gen der differences diminished after respondents' daily stressors were tak en into account. Implications of these findings for gender role and ru mination theories are discussed.