Working in gender-dominated occupations and depressive symptoms: findings from the two age cohorts of the lidA study

Gender-specific differences in the frequency of depression to the disadvantage of women have been known for decades. In Germany, there is evidence that the prevalence of mental disorders also differs by occupation. The present study investigates whether for women working in male-dominated occupations and for men working in female-dominated occupations is related to depressive symptoms independently from other factors like work stress and work-family conflict. Special attention is paid to gender differences. Moreover, women are distinguished according to their working time (full-time or not). We use data from the first wave of the lidAstudy for our analyses. We make use of the applied Beck Depression Inventory, the effort-reward imbalance scales as well as the work-family conflict scale. Occupational gender segregation is defined as a share of 80 % of men and women per occupation, respectively. For women, the results of the multivariate analyses show an independent relationship between depressive symptoms and working in male-dominated occupations. Furthermore, significant interactions between occupational gender segregation and work stress are observed in both men and women regarding depressive symptoms.