Michelle TongPSYC 281Pro. Cardemil10/8/2015

In Bostwick, Boyd, Hughes, West, and Esteban's study (2015), the researchers examined the association between the past-year mental health outcomes and perceived discrimination based on sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, and gender. Bostwick and her colleges points out the the difference between this study and many other previous studies on the topic of discrimination and the mental health was that this study not only demonstrated the association between mental health and different discriminations, but also examined whether the association between mental health and different discriminations would be more significant when the different discriminations were combined. The sample of 34,652 participants for this study was pulled from NESARC. The sample population was self-defined as gay, lesbian, bisexual or heterosexuals. Each discrimination type were followed by six questions of the likelihood of experiencing these discriminations on daily bases. According to the response, the results were divided into three groups, which were single discrimination type, dual discrimination, and triple discrimination. The data analysis shows that gay men were significantly more likely to report any past hear mental health disorders, and also significantly more likely to report any sexual orientation discrimination in the past year. Racial discrimination were more common among the sexual minority men of color. Lesbian were more likely than bisexual woman to report any past-year discrimination, and sexual minority women of color we're more likely than white sexual minority woman to report any past-year discrimination. This study suggests that a greater number of types of discriminations that a persons experience, generally associated with a higher probability of reporting a past year mental health disorder. Interestingly, the study also suggests that sexual orientation discrimination, or racial discrimination alone was not associated with higher risk of mental health disorder, however gender discrimination along did a associated with higher risk of mental health disorder. Martin, Harold, Neighbors, Derek, and Griffiths study (2013) examined the difference in experience of symptoms of depression in men and women. Martin and her colleagues suggested that the traditional diagnostic criteria of depression was inadequate because when men experiencing depression, they may experience symptoms that were not necessary fit the traditional criteria because of the social masculinity value. For example, instead of appearing sad or crying, men tend to react with anger, self-destructive behavior, self- distraction, substance use, gambling, womanizing, and workaholism. So instead of using the traditional diagnostic criteria of depression, Martin and her colleagues created an alternative man-type depression symptom criteria called Male Symptoms Scale (MSS). The MSS scale including seven symptoms: (1) irritability, (2) anger attacks/aggression, (3) sleep disturbance, (4) alcohol/other drug abuse, (5) risk-taking behavior, (6) hyperactivity, (7) stress, and (8) loss of interest in pleasurable activities. Another scale they used in this study was Gender Inclusive Depression Scale (GIDS), which included 15 symptoms of both traditional depression symptom and men symptom of depression. The sample was pulled from NCS-R with totally of 9282, English-speaking adult participants. The measurement was based on the participants self-report of how likely/often they experience symptoms on the MSS and GIDS scale. The result showed that by using MSS scale, that depression was more prevalent among men than women and more prevalent among men with major depression. Similar to MSS, GIDS scale also identified depression in men more often than when only the traditional DSM-IV criteria were used. Based on the result, the study suggests that when alternative and traditional symptoms were combined, sex disparities in the prevalence of depression were eliminated. Both Bostwick et al. (2015) and Martin et al. (2013) discussed the role of discrimination in mental health. However, Bostwick et al. (2015) focused on the discrimination of sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, and gender, and examined the relationship between combined discrimination. Martin et al. (2013) on the hand, examined the gender discrimination, in term of the symptom difference that men and women may experience during depression, and how the traditional diagnostic criteria did not cover the symptoms that men usually experience. From Bostwick et al. (2015), it is not a surprise to see that a person experience more than one discriminations had higher risk for mental illness, however, Im spectacle about when the study says racial discrimination or sexual discrimination alone does not show a higher risk of mental illness, because throughout this semester, I have read several articles in this class about being a racial minority and sexual orientation minority may experience higher anxiety and even depression. One thing about Martin et al. (2013)s study that I concern is the sample. The sample eliminated non-English-speaking people, which can cause bias in sample group. Immigrants (especially first-generation immigrants) would likely to the eliminated from the sample because this group tent to have limited English speaking ability. Minority who speak Spanish, Chinese, Korean and etc. were also likely to be eliminated. Because of this bias, racial minority groups, immigrants, and certain subculture groups may not be well represented in the sample, which may further cause limitation and bias when apply the result to a more generalized population.