Symptom Differences by Gender for Outpatient Clients as Measured by the SCL-90-R

It has been well accepted that women demonstrate a significantly higher prev-alence for mood disorders than their male counterparts. This study included the administration of the Symptom-Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R) over the course of a one-month period to a sample (n = 243) of females (66%) and males (34%) receiving treatment from an outpatient community mental health clinic. Descriptive statistics, a MANOVA, and subsequent ANOVAs revealed that women scored higher on every sub-scale of the SCL-90-R, except the psychoticism sub-scale, however, only the difference on the somatization sub-scale was statistically significant. Implications of these results for mental health providers are explored.