Mental wellbeing among the middle aged women is an essential aspect in the current world. Mental health can be defined as a state of well-being where each person identifies his abilities, can withstand stresses of life, can operate productively as well as fruity and has the ability to make a contribution to her or his community. Mental wellbeing can be defined to refer to the absence of distressful symptoms but it may include positive qualities that people possess which could result to mental health (Suman, & Chatterjee, 2015). A positive psychological well-being is related to emotional intelligence, occupational health as well as good inter-personal relationships. Poor mental health among women is attributed to the inability to cope with major life transitions such as rise in distress symptoms; rise in negative self-evaluations, poor work productivity as well as neuroticism.
Literature Gap
As a concern for ladies’ mental health at the national level tends to be clear, we do not have a detailed comprehension of how distinct individualized aspects affect the ladies’ positive functions. For instance how distinct sociodemographics elements for instance age, income, education, marital status and race as well as other psychological factors affect women’s positive psychological well-being have not been studied fully, through research tends to support potential influence. Therefore of ladies’ positive functioning is better to be comprehended and intervention should be developed to aid in promoting women’s mental health, a comprehensive understanding on how these aspects operates.
The central gap in this body of research is a detailed comprehension of the women’s experience with psychological well-being. In the various research articles that I evaluated, I found out that there were inconsistent findings on the factors that impact women’s mental health. Therefore, more research is required to understand the factors associated with women’s psychological well-being. Generally, various socio-demographic and psychological factors tended to impact women’s well-being. Studies that majored in women are not sufficient regarding psychological well-being studies. In addition, the majority of the study’s findings were based on the MIDUS data collected in the 1990s. These findings are now not reliable since they tend to be outdated.
Annotated bibliography
Allahverdipour, H., Karimzadeh, Z., Alizadeh, N., Asghari Jafarabadi, M., & Javadivala, Z. (2021). Psychological well-being and happiness among middle-aged women: a cross-sectional study. Health care for women international, 42(1), 28-42.https://doi.org/10.1080/07399332.2019.1703990
The study by Allahverdipour et al., (2021), aims at examining the mental state among the middle aged females. The study aims at examining the biological, physical as well as the psychosocial changes that take place during the aging process which may affect the ladies’ mental health as well as happiness in their middle age.
Based on the study, the biological, physical and psychological changes which take place during the process of aging can inapproproatey affect ladies mental health as well as happiness at midlife. Health care centers are expected to implement more detailed mental health promotion programs for middle aged ladies. This will allow us to identify that factors that impact the women’s mental health.
Harandi, T. F., Taghinasab, M. M., & Nayeri, T. D. (2017). The correlation of social support with mental health: A meta-analysis. Electronic physician, 9(9), 5212. Doi: 10.19082/5212
The study by Harandi, Taghinasab and Nayeri (2019), aims at investigating the effect size of the connection between support and mental health. The study reviews other previous studies to identify the relationship between social support with mental health.
Based on the study, there is a connection between social support as well as mental health. It is essential to predispose higher social support, mainly women, the elderly, patients, employees as well as learners. The study will enable us to identify how social support may impact the mental health of a person especially for the ladies.
Thibuat, F., Van, P., & Wijngaarden-Cremers, V. (2020). Women’s Mental Health in the Time of Covid-19 Pandemic. Frontiers in Global Women’s Health. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgwh.2020.588372
Thibuat and his associates (2020) studied the mental health state of ladies during the Corona virus pandemic. They studied the state of pregnancy during the pandemic, the mental and the psychiatric risk that the ladies face as patients and as employees in the healthcare sector, and the maximized risk of violence against ladies at home as well as in workplaces.
Bases on the findings of this article, though the fatality rate of men is more than that of women, the Covid-19 Pandemic tends to have impacted women more than men. The article aims at evaluating the differences identified in psychological health as well as violence between men and women. The study will allow us to learn how women mental health was affected by Covid-19.
Sherlock, M., & Wagstaff, D. L. (2019). Exploring the relationship between frequency of Instagram use, exposure to idealized images, and psychological well-being in women. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(4), 482.https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/ppm0000182
Sherlock and Wagstaff (2019), study aimed at evaluating the connection between the use of instagram and the psychological wellbeing among women. The study on psychological health impacts of social networking mainly focus on Facebook and instagram and their impact on mental health among women.
Based on the study findings, the rate of Instagram use is associated with depressive symptoms, self-esteem, physical appearance anxiety as body dissatisfaction. This study describes how social media impact women’s mental health.
Sundaresan, M., & Nalini, R. (2017). Psychological Well-being of Working Women. Women and Work. A[1https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317953518_Psychological_Well-being_of_Working_Women
The article by Sundaresan and Nalini (2017) aims at examining the psychological well-being among the working women in regard to stress, depression, anxiety as well as discrimination in workplace. The article aids in bringing out the mental health or mental status of working females. It as well describes the mental conditions that working ladies face as well as their causes. This is an effective article for our study since it majors on women’s mental health.
The study as well evaluated the well-being in respect to going through stress, depression, anxiety as well as discrimination in workplace experienced by working ladies. They have as well attended psychological health initiative as well as with their cumulative years of working experience. The study aided in determining the mental wellbeing of working women.
Sharma, I. (2015). Violence against women: Where are the solutions? Indian journal of psychiatry, 57 (2), 131.https://dx.doi.org/10.4103%2F0019-5545.158133
The study by Sharma (2015), majors on studying violence among women and its solutions. Violence is brought out as a factor which may result to poor mental health among women. This article as well identifies some possible solutions to violence among women. Therefore the article identifies a cause of poor mental health among women as well as its possible solutions.
Based on the article, violence tends to be a manageable cause of morbidity and death among women. The connection between violence against women and mental illness had not been sufficiently explored. The article identifies a cause of poor mental health among women and its solution.
Lin, S., Tyus, N., Maloney, M. Ohri, B., & Sripipatana,A. (2020). Mental health status among women of reproductive age from underserved communities in the United States and the associations between depression and physical health. A cross-sectional study. Plos One. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231243
The article by Lin et al., (2020), aims at describing the mental health state of middle aged women who are in the reproductive age. The researchers majored on the underserved communities in the US. This aids in bringing out the mental condition that women live under.
Based in the study, perinatal depression and anxiety are associated to fatal outcomes regarding pregnancy, maternal functioning as well as healthy child development. The study identifies how psychological health status among ladies of reproductive age from underserved communities in the US and the associations between depression and physical health.
Malhotra, S., & Shah, R. (2015). Women and mental health in India: An overview.Indian journal of psychiatry, 57 (2), 205-211. DOI: 10.4103/0019-5545.161479
The article by Malhotra and Shah (2015), identifies the state of mental health among women in India. The study identifies the most common types of mental health disorders among ladies as well as their causes.
Gender tends to be a major determined of mental health and mental disorders. The trends of mental disorder among ladies are district from those identified among men. Women tend to have higher level of internalizing disorders as men show higher mean level of externalities disorders. The study identifies women’s mental health.
Gale, C. R., Cooper, C., Deary, I. J., & Sayer, A. A. (2014). Psychological well-being and incident frailty in men and women: the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Psychological medicine, 44 (4), 697-706. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291713001384
The article by Gale et al, (2014) aims at investigating the psychological wellbeing of men and women linked with the event of physical frailty. The article evaluates how men and women with high levels of psychological wellbeing behave or tend to be. This will bring put the impact that mental status among middle aged women how they age.
The researchers adds that maintaining a greater sense of psychological health in later life may safeguard one against the development of physical frailty. It was observed that older people that enjoy life more tend to live longer which shows that mental well-being may be an appropriate resource for effective aging.
Ciciurkaite, G., & Perry, B. L. (2018). Body weight, perceived weight stigma and mental health among women at the intersection of race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status: Insights from the modified labelling approach. Sociology of health & illness, 40 (1), 18-37.https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12619
The study by Ciciurkaite and Perry (2018), brings out how weight impacts the mental health of women. Due to the increased rated of obesity, attention of life chances as well as psychological consequences related to weight stigma as well as weight based discrimination tends to have intensified. Weight is thus treated as a factor that impacts the women’s mental health.
There is high rate of overweight in the United States, and thus attention of life opportunities and mental impacts rated to weigh stigma and weight based discrimination has maximized. Based on the article the high social status has a buffering impact of weight stigma on psychological well-being.
Outline of the Literature Review
Introduction
- Definition of the state of mental health among the middle aged women
- Significance of the study
- Definition of terms
Body
- The state of mental health among the middle aged women
- Factors that affect women’s mental health
- Solutions to poor mental health among women
Conclusion
- Analytical Summary
- Thesis reworded
- Concluding statement
Relevant Theories
There are various existing theories of mental health. Positive psychological well-being and emotional well-being are the main theories that are well related to my research study. With positive functioning view of psychological well-being, psychological well-being tends to be a multidimensional construct. Therefore psychological well-being is basically evaluated through the use of various instruments subscales. Researchers on psychological health research arguments are based on one of two major theoretical frameworks, the theory of emotional well-being or the theory of positive functioning. The two main theories of psychological well-being are the same since they represent approached to comprehension of mental health (Vallerand, 2012). Based on the theory of emotional well-being, psychological well-being involves satisfaction with life as well as insufficient psychological distress.
Emotional well-being (hedonic well-being) theory is among the most effective psychological theories. Based on this theory, mental health is a multidimensional aspect that is composed of cognitive component as well as an affective component. When assessing emotional well-being, consensus lacks on how this aspect should be assessed. It is a form of happiness as well as satisfaction which is attained when pleasure is attained and pain is avoided. I propose that one is happy when positive affect and contentment with life are both high (Huta, 2017). It is a notion that majors on maximized pleasure and minimized pain leads to happiness. It majors on subjective health. It is composed of an affective aspects as well as a cognitive aspect. It is proposed that a person experiences happiness when positive affect as well as satisfaction with life are both high.
In regard to the emotional well-being theory, mental health has been describes as the insufficient symptom of distress. For instance reduction in depressive as well as anxiety symptoms is equal to the enhanced psychological well-being. In regard to this framework, affects is conceptualized to function on a continuum, with appropriate effect on one end and negative affect on the other. Therefore positive and negative affect are basically identified as highly inversely related with each other. With an enhancement in positive affect, negative affect tends to decrease.
References
Huta, V. (2017). An overview of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being concepts. Retrieved from https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-19756-002
Suman, V. B., & Chatterjee, P. (2015). Psychological and physical well-being in working women. International Journal of Medical Science and Public Health, 4(11), 1489-1493
Vallerand, R. J. (2012). The role of passion in sustainable psychological well-being. Psychology of well-Being: Theory, research and practice, 2(1), 1-21.
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