Does shame mediate the relationship between gender role conflict and psychological distress

Abstract

Gender Role Conflict (GRC) correlated with different measures of psychological distress. However, there has been little research investigating the mechanism underpinning these relationships. Shame may be an important mechanism due to conceptual relevance to GRC, and previous research had shown that shame correlated with GRC and different measures of psychological distress. This study aimed to investigate whether shame mediates the relationship between GRC and psychological distress. A quantitative cross-sectional design was used to gather questionnaires relating to the study variables from 204 male participants with a mean age of 29.22 (SD=7.68). Using the causal step approach (Baron & Kenny, 1986) and bootstrapping, the analysis found that shame mediates the relationship between GRC and psychological distress. This finding has treatment implications for treating men’s psychological distress, including targeting shame and deconstructing dominant masculine norms. However, further research would help to establish support for the causal inferences of the study’s findings.