Comparing men's and women's loss of perceived social and work resources following psychological distress

We explored the influence of anger and depressive mood on the receipt of perceived workplace social support and perceived workplace resources among 121 postal workers over a period of 3 months. We theorized that emotional distress would result in perceptions of decreased social support and workplace resources for women, but not men. The hypothesis was partially supported. Interaction effects revealed that, whereas women perceived losing support and resources when experiencing depression and anger, respectively, these emotions had only limited negative consequences for men. The findings suggest that emotions are more closely linked with perceptions of social support and workplace resources for women than for men.