Female gender, sexist maltreatment, adverse childhood events, and psychological symptoms: A case of omitted-variable bias

Psychol Trauma. 2025 May 12. doi: 10.1037/tra0001952. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between gender and symptomatology as potentially mediated by exposure to sexism and childhood adversity.

METHOD: Using an online sample of 498 women and men, structural equation modeling was employed to test these potential direct and intermediary associations.

RESULTS: A direct path from female gender to symptomatology in Model 1 had acceptable fit characteristics. However, this relationship was no longer present once exposure to sexism and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) were added in Model 2. Instead, female gender was associated with exposure to sexism and childhood adversities, which, in turn, were related to symptomatology. Also significant in Model 2 was a path from male (but not female) gender to symptomatology once sexism and ACEs were taken into account. Follow-up analyses of variance revealed that the change from female to male prediction of symptoms was a function of the intermediary effects of exposure to sexism, but not ACEs.

CONCLUSIONS: Women’s symptomatology may not be uniquely related to their gender, per se, but is significantly associated with their experiences of sexism and childhood adversity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

PMID:40354298 | DOI:10.1037/tra0001952