Pregnancy dreams: Gender differences in dream content during pregnancy

This dissertation compared the content of dream reports from pregnant women and expectant men utilizing the Hall and Van de Castle scale of content analysis (1966). A total of 64 dreams were gathered from 24 women and 24 men aged 18 to 42 years. At least one dream report of 50 to 250 words was collected from each participant. The dreams were categorized by trimester.

Measurable differences in dream content for pregnant women and expectant men were found that were significantly different than previously reported differences in gender norms. In particular, both women and men had h-profile content measures .50 or more different than their respective norms, which is statistically significant at the .05 level or greater. Women's reports yielded h-profile values that were .50 higher for family characters than total characters, .55 lower for friend characters than total characters, and .62 higher for torso objects than total anatomy objects. Men displayed .55 greater befriender percent, .62 lesser aggressive interactions than friendly interactions, .62 greater dreamer-involved success percent, .89 greater family characters than total characters, and .94 lesser male characters than female characters. One common thread between the men and women was the percentage of family out of total characters, of which both groups showed significantly more than the reported norms.