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Category: Project

Description: Gender roles are social constructs that influence beliefs and attitudes in various aspects of life, including beliefs about motherhood. These beliefs acquired through culture and society can have an impact on our mental well-being. The main objective of this study was to examine the relationship between the extended version of the Attitudes Towards Gender Roles Scale (ATGRS) and the extended version of the Motherhood Beliefs Scale (MBS) with measures of depression, anxiety, and Positive Psychological Functioning (PPF) as indicators of mental health. We included three independent samples of people with and without children (total sample = 3,927). The findings revealed a positive association between traditional attitudes towards gender roles and traditional beliefs about motherhood. Furthermore, individuals without children tended to express a more non-traditional belief in Motherhood as a decision, a newly added factor in the MBS, while those with children displayed a stronger belief in motherhood as a Sense of life, an original factor in the MBS, and a more traditional perspective. Interestingly, women exhibited lower agreement with traditional attitudes in both gender roles and motherhood beliefs, and they also reported higher levels of depression and anxiety, along with lower scores in positive psychological functioning, compared to men. This study contributes to our understanding of the link between cultural constructs such as gender roles and motherhood beliefs and their impact on mental health. It also highlights that the effects on mental well-being are more pronounced in women, as evidenced by higher levels of anxiety and depression, which subsequently affect their overall psychological well-being.