Sex differences in reported mood states

Abstract

It is generally agreed that females tend to assent more readily to negative mood states such as Anxiety or Depression, than do males. The present study explored this issue on a large sample of male and female Education undergraduate students, using the Eight State Questionnaire (8SQ) as the measure of mood states. Several studies had previously suggested that the 8SQ is a useful multidimensional instrument for quantifying a wide range of clinically important mood states. Results indicated that male and female students responded differentially to a minority of the 8SQ items, and that the factor structure of reported moods differed only slightly across sex. Indeed, the similarities in reported..