Feminization and Stress in the Veterinary Profession: A Systematic Diagnostic Approach and Associated Management

Abstract

Within the field of veterinary medicine the gender distribution has changed, since most graduates are now females. Studies show that female veterinarians represent a vulnerable group for stress and stress-related illnesses. The goal of the study was to identify typical profiles of stress management strategies and to clarify if vets are well-equipped to cope with occupational stressors. Within a cross-sectional design 78 female veterinarians from Austria and Germany were surveyed using a self-report test-battery assessing twenty different coping styles. Statistical analysis included one sample t-tests and Cohen’s d as a concurrent effect size measure. The results showed that female veterinarians are significantly more likely to use negative coping styles for their stress e.g., rumination (t(74) = 6.733, p = < 0.001, d = 0.726) or escapism (t(72) = 2.173, p = 0.033, d = 0.281) when compared to the norm population. Amongst other studies these findings contribute to a systematic diagnosis which is necessary for the development and implementation of standardized stress management interventions for the veterinary education and training e.g., courses for improving communication and stress management skills and regular supervision or intervision (exchange with professional peers). Due to existing stigmatization concerning mental health, low-barrier counseling services should be provided for veterinarians who already feel stressed.

Mental well-being and diversity, equity, and inclusiveness in the veterinary profession: Pathways to a more resilient profession

“…In the last decade, numerous reports have identified important stressors in the veterinary profession, particularly from Englishspeaking countries (i.e., UK, USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand). These have included long working hours (2-5), lower income compared to other medical professionals (6), challenging client communications (3,(6)(7)(8)(9)(10), demanding worklife balance (6,11), and high student debt (12,13) and resulted in compassion fatigue (14,15), burnout (14)(15)(16), veterinarians feeling they have a life not worth living (17), and other forms of stress (18). In particular, early career female practitioners generally seem to experience more negative stressors compared to more seasoned male colleagues (2, 13,19).…”

Supportive relations in a feminized occupation: How male and female veterinarians compare

“…Veterinary medicine offers an important case study to consider because it has undergone a very recent and even more striking numerical feminization compared with other professions (Emmett et al, 2019;Irvine & Vermilya, 2010). For example, there were no female veterinarians in Canada in 1931 (Adams, 2010), but by 1991, women represented 31% of veterinarians (Statistics Canada, 2016) and by 2020, they represented 61% of the profession (Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, 2020).…”

“…Most research that assesses integration has limited attention to the numeric representation of women across areas of work, job titles, and earnings (Gorman & Mosseri, 2019;Levanon et al, 2009;Pearlman, 2019;Stainback et al, 2012). Second, we examine veterinary medicine -a field of great interest for its recent and rapid shift from a male-to female-numerically-dominated profession (Emmett et al, 2019;Irvine & Vermilya, 2010). Most research on occupational gender segregation has focused on women's entry to traditionally male-dominated occupations where women continue to remain in the minority (Cech & Blair-Loy, 2010;Donley & Baird, 2017;Wright, 2016).…”

Development of a New Rumination Scale

“…Mental rumination is a disease, according to International Classification of Diseases -11 th edition (World Health Organization, 2020), coded as MB24.E Mental rumination and it represents mental preoccupation with negative events, negative personal characteristics, or failures. Mental rumination means sinking into thoughts over and over a problem, thinking over and over about a stressful event, a stressful situation (Emmett et al, 2019;Gassling et al, 2012;Heim, 1995), presence of intrusive thoughts (Hörlesberger, 2016), obsessive thoughts on what has happened (Emmett et al, 2019;Harzer & Ruch, 2015), constant rethinking of the problem without reaching a clear conclusion and solution, aimless thinking about the problem (Heim, 1995;Heim et al, 1991), excessive persistence (Balcar et al, 2011;Holubova et al, 2018) and perseveration in thoughts, rethinking repeatedly a stressful event (Balcar et al, 2011;Gassling et al, 2012;Holubova et al, 2018), constant thinking about the situation so that the person cannot be distracted from it (Emmett et al, 2019;Harzer & Ruch, 2015), the person finds it difficult to think of something else (Götz, 2003). Rumination is expressed as repetitive negative thoughts about own negative emotional experiences, and reflections on their causes, consequences, and symptoms (Dzhambov et al, 2019).…”

“…Repetitive negative thoughts (rumination) are maladaptive cognitive responses to stressful events, social interactions, and failure (Dzhambov et al, 2019). Fixation in thinking about what is happening is negative coping -instead of overcoming stress, you can increase it (Emmett et al, 2019;Harzer & Ruch, 2015). Thinking repeatedly about an unpleasant event leads to longer activation of cortisol that is related to a delay in recovery from a psychosocial stressor (Gassling et al, 2012).…”