Affective state of ethnic community as related to gender and marital status

Abstract

The study was aimed at understanding the affective state of Bangladeshi
ethnic community in relation to gender and marital status. Towards this end,
positive and negative affects of 103 adult indigenous persons were measured.
Analysis of data in multiple regressions demonstrated that both gender and
marital status are significantly associated with positive affect (Gender: β = 0.318,
p < 0.001; Marital status: β = 0.201, p < 0.05) but not with negative affect. Results
indicated that the indigenous males have 0.32 standard deviations increased
positive affect as compared to the indigenous females and that married
individuals have 0.20 standard deviations increased positive affect as compared
to their unmarried counterparts. Along with previous studies the present study
advances the understanding that gender and marital status inequalities in affect
are not specific to a particular community; rather it is a generalized picture of all
societies. In general, men possess more positive affect than females; married
persons possess more positive affect than the unmarried persons.