Examining the Influence of Womanist Identity Attitudes and Conformity to Gender Norms on the Mental Health of Women in the U.S.

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Examining the Influence of Womanist Identity Attitudes and Conformity to Gender Norms on the Mental Health of Women in the U.S. Jillian C. Lyons The purpose of this investigation was to expand the existing body of research on women’s mental health outcomes, by examining the influences of conformity to feminine gender norms and womanist identity attitudes on mental health outcomes. Specifically, the present study examined whether there were patterns of womanist identity attitudes or conformity to feminine norms that were associated with higher levels of psychological well-being, and self esteem and lower levels of psychological distress. Furthermore, the study examined the combined impact of conformity to feminine norms and womanist identity attitudes on the measured mental health outcome variables. Three criterion related profile analyses were conducted entering the feminine norm subscales as predictors and psychological well-being, psychological distress and selfesteem as the criterions. Three criterion related profile analyses were conducted entering the womanist identity attitudes subscales as predictors, and the mental health outcome variables as the criterions. The results indicated that there were identified criterion patterns of conformity to feminine norms and womanist identity attitudes that were significantly related to higher levels of self-esteem, psychological well-being and lower levels of psychological distress. A cluster analysis was performed resulting in a three-cluster solution that categorized participants into groups based on similar endorsement to the predictor variables. The three cluster groups were entered into MANOVAs, which identified significant differences between the clusters on all of the measured mental health outcome variables. The findings, implications for clinical practice and future directions are discussed.