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Research Agenda for Psychosocial and Behavioral Factors in Womens Health: Guiding Principles

The research agenda was guided by the following principles:

  • The focus of research should be on understanding how the experiences of groups affect health-related issues, rather than on simply documenting group differences or differences between women and men. Women are a heterogeneous group whose experiences may vary with ethnicity and race, marital status, parental status, education, income, occupation, sexual orientation, labor force participation, and geographic location (e.g., urban vs. rural). Health needs, barriers to obtaining services, styles of coping or bases for well-being may vary among diverse cultural and socioeconomic groups.
  • Gender-related psychological, behavioral, and social factors, and their interrelationships with biomedical factors, are important to consider in understanding disease and health. Like ethnic status, social class, and age, gender is associated with social realities that are different for women and men. Social and psychological experiences that are significantly related to health outcomes are important components of a research agenda in women's health.
  • Psychological and behavioral factors are important predictors of well-being, vulnerability to disease, and disease outcomes. Research is needed on the psychological factors that influence health, including risk reduction, coping behavior, self-efficacy, perceptions of control, social support, and depression.
  • Quality of life is an important outcome measure and includes a sense of well-being, functional health, and engagement in the psychological and social world.
  • A life span-developmental approach is important in understanding health practices and outcomes. The stage of a woman’s life influences behavior and also provides a context within which health-related behavior and illness can be understood.
  • Contextual factors represent cross-cutting issues that must be considered in designing, implementing, and interpreting research results in order to enhance traditional biomedical research and offer new insights. Thus, women’s health issues should be studied within the following contexts:
    • Relationships: How do women’s relationships affect health status, health behaviors, and health attitudes? How do health behaviors, attitudes, and health status affect women's relationships?
    • Ethnicity: How do women’s ethnic backgrounds shape their health, health behaviors, and attitudes?
    • Resources: How do financial and structural resources enhance or limit women’s health options?
    • Status and power: How do women’s social status, work status, and power within relationships limit health options or affect health status?
    • Gender expectations: How is health status affected by gender expectations, such as expectations for mothering/primary parenting and care giving for others who are sick or in need, expectations to serve as an emotional support system for others, and expectations for housework and other household tasks.

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