1. Mental health of nursing: There are differences between men and women? Saavedra, A. I. 1, Sánchez-López, M. P. 2 & Cuellar-Flores, I. 1, 2 1 Hospital Universitario de Getafe (Madrid, Spain). 2 Research Group of Psychological Styles, Gender and Health (EPSY), Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain). Introduction The bibliographical review of differences in mental health according to sex indicates poorer mental health status in women (MSC, 2008; Rodríguez- Sanz, Carrillo & Borrell, 2005).. We wonder whether the same difference is found in male and female nurses. The most prevalent mental disorders,-depression, anxiety and somatization, are seen in twice as many cases in women than in men, and sex-linked biological factors do not explain this result. This inequality in the forms of disease is caused by factors psychosocial gender factors (Observatory of Women's Health, 2009). Purpose With two groups of participants (male and female nurses), paired in diverse sociodemographic variables, we propose to verify whether there are differences in mental health. Method Participants N = 196 nurses (98 men and 98 women from Madrid’s hospital ) Ages = 20-56 years Mean age = 32.45 Sx = 16.84 Acknowledgements Hospital Universitario de Getafe for his involvement in the project. Instruments and Variables Gender Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory – CFNI (Mahalik et al., 2005), Spanish version (Sánchez- López, Cuellar-Flores, Dresch, & Aparicio-García, 2009 ). Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory – CMNI (Mahalik et al., 2003), Spanish version ( Cuellar- Flores, Sánchez-López & Dresch, 2011). Health Procedures The questionnaires were administered individually in which participation was voluntary. The participants granted their verabl consent. The statistical package SPSS version 18.0 was used for statistical analysis. The data analysis techniques are presented in Results. Mental Health References Mahalik, J.R., Burns, S.H., & Syzdek, M. (2007). Masculinity and perceived normative health behaviors as predictors of men’s health behaviors. Social Science & Medicine, 64, 2201-2209. Mahalik, J.R., Locke, B., Ludlow, L., Diemer, M., Scott, R.P.J., Gottfried, M., & Freitas, G. (2003). Development of the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory. Psychology of Men and Masculinity, 4, 3-25. Mahalik, J.R., Morray, E.B., Coonerty-Femiano, A., Ludlow, L.H., Slattery, S.M., & Smiler, A. (2005). Development of the Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory. Sex Roles, 52, 417-435. Maccoby, E.E. & Jacklin, C.N. (1974). The psychology of sex differences. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. MSC (2008). Encuesta Nacional de Salud, 2006 [National Health Survey, 2006]. Available in www.msc.es, retrieved March 15, 2009. Sánchez-López, M.P. & Dresch, V. (2008). The 12-Item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12): reliability, external validity and factor structure in the Spanish population. Psicothema, 20(4), 839-843. Sánchez-López, M.P., Cuellar-Flores, I., Dresch, V., & Aparicio-García, M.E. (in press). Conformity to feminine gender norms in the Spanish population. Social Behavior and Personality, 37(9). Rodríguez-Sanz,M., Carrillo, P., Borrell, C. (2005). Social inequalities in health, lifestyles and use of health services but in the CCAA. Ministry of Health. Velasco Arias, S. (2008).Recommendations for the practice of gender in health programs. Observatory on Health and Gender report 2007-2008. Women and men in the health professions. Reports, Studies and Research,,2009. Discussion and Conclusions When we use as our starting point the equality of sociodemographic variables such as age, marital status, family responsibilities (same number of children, and same number of dependents), educational level, economic status, job and shift, the reported mental health differences between men and women are still observed, so that female nurses have worse mental health than male nurses. The conclusions lead us to contemplate the existence of psychosocial factors such as gender vulnerability (e, g., role overload, lack of adequate time,...), the difference in perception and expression of pain (mediated by the way they have been socialized) and gender bias in health care (when dealing with similar problems of mood changes), and the tendency is to prescribe psychotropic drugs far more often to women). This needs to be studied when analyzing mental health differences between men and women. 12-Item General Health Questionnaire – GHQ-12 (Goldberg & Williams, 1988), Spanish version (Sánchez-López & Dresch, 2008). Some questions of the “National Health Survey” (MSC, 2006) about self-perceived health, tobacco, alcohol, consumption of medication and physical complaints. MENTAL HEALTH OF NURSES: THERE ARE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN? Male nursesWomen nurses Young (1) Middle-aged (2) Young (3) Middle-aged (4) VariablesMDTM M M FPeer comparison Self-perceived health 1.83.501.82.592 2.17.892.57*1-4*;2-4* Total number of diseases 1.381.532.411.972.441.93.172.527.38***1-2*;1-3**;1-4*** Consumption of medicines 2.142.532.362.63.312.792.652.642.54*1-3** Medical visits.36.7.64.9.56.89.48.91.08ns- Mental health1.632.28.912.162.532.991.431.973.22*1-3*;2-3** Job stress4.411.344.51.55.371.074.741.633.55*1-3*;2-3**;3-4* Job satisfaction5.431.395.271.085.231.295.481.04.44ns- Number of cigarettes/smoke per day 2.685.62.736.122.735.353.786.64.45ns- Frequency of alcohol consumption 3.142.743.451.972.232.381.171.033.81*1-3*;1-4**;2-4** Resultados Objective To verify whether there are differences in mental health between nurses and general population and male and females nurses. Hipótesis The general population will get better scores in the mental health nurse sample. Female nurses in mental health will score worse than male nurses.