Idania María Otero-Ramos

Background

The study of aspects related to positive mental health and well-being in the general population with a gender approach is a necessity in the current context imposed by COVID-19.

Objective. To explore gender as a predictor of subjective well-being during COVID-19 in a sample of the Cuban population.

Design. A cross-sectional web-based survey design was adopted. The sample consisted of 129 Cuban participants. The Subjective Well-being-Reduced Scale (SW-RS) was used to explore subjective well-being in the sample. Descriptive statistics were used to explore the participants’ characteristics. A multinomial logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify variables independently associated with the participants’ subjective well-being. 

Results. The gender of participants significantly predicted subjective well-being levels.  The probability of males having middle or high levels of subjective well-being, rather than low levels, was 4.16 times greater than in females. The probability of males having a high self-image instead of a low one was 4.35 times greater than in females. According to the self-satisfaction dimension, the odds of males having high rather than low self-satisfaction were five times more than in females. In this sample, gender did not predict whether participants had middle or high levels of the hedonic dimension.

Conclusion. Our results corroborated international studies that have indicated the coincidence of lower well-being and greater psychosocial risk in women during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results also indicated the need to dig deeper into the experiences of subjective well-being from a gender perspective, and to strengthen the sufficiency and effectiveness of the actions and guidance that are offered to the population from psychological care services, the media, and public policies.