Differences in adjustment among university-educated men and women

The present study forms a part of a thirteen-year longitudinal study of mental health and examines how university-educated men and women have adapted to an average environment. In basic cross-tabulations, 63 out of the total 356 psychological and sociological characteristics proved to be differently distributed for men and women. On the other hand, there were no quantitative differences in global mental health-illness indicators between the sexes. Fifteen central personality characteristics indicating good adaptation were kept constant. Different scales for men and women were needed for adjustment measures such as: "social position", "level of university degree", "ego strength", "control of anger", "general ability", "norm-dependence". On the contrary, "satisfaction with occupation", "self-actualization in love", "having children", "quality of social background" were distributed identically. Consequently, keeping these indicators constant did not decrease sex-differences. Hartmann's concept of adaptation to average environment proved to be rather difficult to apply in practice. Differences in how men and women adapted in Finnish society were examined in detail. The general adjustment was rather successful but there were signs indicating that the women's adaptation was less successful.