Behavioral Gerontology Research: Where are the Male Participants?. (21st July 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: LaLonde, Kate B.; Zimmermann, Zachary J.; Poling, Alan
• Is Part Of: Behavioral interventions. Volume 30:Number 4(2015:Nov.)
• Page Start: 378
• Page End: 385
• Publication Date: 2015-07-21
• Subjects: People with mental disabilities -- Behavior modification -- Periodicals; Behavior therapy -- Periodicals; 616.89142
• DOI: 10.1002/bin.1416
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1072-0847

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="bin1416-abs-0001"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p id="bin1416-para-0001">It has been reported that females are underrepresented in several areas of psychological research, which may have significant clinical and theoretical implications. No one has reported, however, whether women are underrepresented in behavioral gerontology research. To make this determination we recorded the gender of participants in behavioral gerontology studies published in six journals. In 129 published studies that included older adults (i.e. people 55 or more years of age) there were a total of 3070 participants, and most (69%) were female. Underrepresentation of men is significant insofar as treatment effects are sometimes gender specific, making it inappropriate to generalize results from females to males (or vice versa). Moreover, underrepresentation of older men suggests that their behavioral needs may not be generating the attention they deserve. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.</p> </abstract>