Gender Role Orientation Research Articles

Mental Health Consequences and Correlates of Reported Medical Student Abuse

To assess the prevalence, correlates, and mental health consequences of reported medical training-related abuses. A longitudinal cohort study of 137 students surveyed from medical school entrance (time 1) through the winter of the fourth training year (time 4). A state college of medicine. Reported training-related abuses (measured at time 4) and mental health status measured at times 1 and 4 (depressive and anxiety symptoms, hostility, problem drinking, escapist drinking, alcohol consumption levels, and gender role orientations). Seventy-two percent of students reported at least one abusive experience during medical training. Females were significantly more likely than males to report gender discrimination, exclusion from informal settings, discomfort from sexual humor, and unwanted sexual advances. Abuse was significantly related to most psychopathological outcomes, controlling for pre-existing psychopathology. Males low in masculinity and females low in femininity were most likely to report abuse. The data provide further support for the assumption that a high proportion of medical students not only experience the training process as abusive in nature but also suffer measurable psychopathological consequences. Efforts should be made to reform medical education, with a prominent focus on gender role-related issues.

Gender-Role Orientation and Preference for an Intimate Partner

D’AGOSTINHO, J. V.; DAY, S. K. Gender-role Orientation and Pr eference for an Intimate Partner. The Psychological Record 41:321-8, 1991

Gender-Role Orientation and Preference for an Intimate Partner

Past research in the area of interpersonal attraction for intimate partners has attempted to ascertain if androgynous college students prefer other androgynous individuals as intimate partners (similarity hypothesis) and if gender-typed students prefer gender-typed individuals as intimate partners (complementarity hypothesis). This premise has not been unequivocally verified. Methodological limitations of these investigations is one potential reason for the equivocal findings. This study employed a methodological technique that addresses these possible limitations by defining similarity and complementarity as relationship processes and by considering them as extremes of a unidimensional continuum. College students were classified by gender-role orientation using the Bern Sex Role Inventory and were asked to report the attributes they would seek in a partner and offer to a partner. The results supported the common premise: gender-typed (and undifferentiated) students were more likely to report preference for a complementary relationship than androgynous students. Advantages of the methodological techniques employed in this study and its limitations are discussed.

Relationships between Achievement and Affiliation Needs and Sex-Role Orientation of College Women Whose Fathers Were Absent from Home

This study examined the influence of fathers' absence on the gender-role orientation, achievement, and affiliation of middle-class, college-aged women and whether these effects operate similarly for white and black women. The subjects were classified as father-absent (34 between 0 to 6 years of age, early absence; 29 between 7 to 12 years of age, late absence) or father-present, based upon written descriptions of their households. Over-all, 80 father-absent subjects were not higher in achievement and lower in affiliation than 191 father-present women; however, black women whose fathers died had significantly higher daydream achievement scores than those with fathers present or white women. Father-absent women were not significantly more masculine and androgynous than father-present women. However, 12 black women whose fathers were dead had significantly higher masculinity scores than the other three groups. The implications of these results are discussed.

Gender role orientations and friendship: Some attenuation, but gender differences abound

In an exploration of the degree to which gender role orientations would attenuate differences on a set of variables specified in a friendship model, 105 women and 101 men described themselves and their best friend of each gender on the Bem Sex Role Inventory. They also described their relationships with each friend using the Acquaintance Description Form F. Women's friendships with female friends were especially strong and rewarding as compared to their friendships with men, and as compared to men's friendships with either women or men. There was a modest attenuating effect due to subjects' GROs. Women, but not men, were sensitive to the perceived GROs of friends, with androgynous friends providing the strongest and broadest array of rewards. Contrary to the common conception of women's friendships as expressive and men's as instrumental, the results suggest that women's friendships are both expressive and instrumental.

Physical violence in Utah households

Using the Conflict Tactics Scale, a random sample of 1471 Utah residential units was selected in 1986 to assess family violence. Results were compared with data from the Straus and Gelles (1986) United States national survey of family violence. Spousal violence rates in Utah households were slightly higher than those in the national survey. Income, employment status, education, family size, religiosity, marital power structure, and gender role orientation failed to differentiate spousal violence rates. Parent-to-child violence rates were less in Utah than in the national survey. Severe mother-to-child violence was influenced substantially by educational level, family size, employment status, and gender role orientation. High level of education for traditionally oriented mothers who are not employed was associated with severe physical violence toward their children.

Occupational Status and Gender-Role Orientation among University Women

26 staff women described themselves as more feminine than 34 faculty women, and rank was related to the belief in academic discrimination against women. This supported social cognitive views of the importance of context.

Domestic Division of Labor Among Working Couples: Does Androgyny Make a Difference?

This study examined the relationship of gender and sex role orientation (SRO) to the domestic division of labor in 139 working couples. Couples completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory as well as questions about who performed domestic tasks, why, and the amount of conflict generated. While women performed more tasks than men, androgynous and feminine-oriented individuals performed more than masculine-oriented individuals. Androgynous individuals also experienced the least conflict over domestic tasks. In couples where the male was androgynous or feminine in SRO, both spouses performed more tasks than spouses in undifferentiated male dyads. In male sex-typed dyads, however, wives performed more tasks than wives in other dyads, while husbands performed less than husbands in other dyads. Women's motivation to perform these tasks was based on their belief that it was their responsibility or that the tasks wouldn't get done otherwise, while men reportedly performed domestic tasks to help out.

Children's Participation in Family Tasks: Determinants of Mothers' and Fathers' Reports

This study was designed to investigate the determinants of mothers' and fathers' reports of children's participation in family tasks. Results indicate that across task categories, sibling structure, gender-role orientation, age of oldest child, and family size are more often related to mothers' reports of children's participation. Among fathers, reports of children's task participation are more often influenced by age of oldest child, sibling structure, and extent of mother-father task sharing. Mothers' employment status did not explain any of the variance in parental reports of children's task participation. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Gender-Role Orientations of Male and Female Coaches of a Masculine-Typed Sport

Gender-Role Orientations of Male and Female Coaches of a Masculine-Typed Sport

Masculinity, femininity and sex: an exploration of their relative contribution to explaining gender differences in health

AbstractThe emergence of gender as a major area of interest in medical sociology in the 1970s set an exciting agenda for future research. However, despite a growing literature, our understanding of the mechanisms linking gender and health has advanced little in recent years. This may, in part, be due to problems in conceptualising gender. In particular, despite theoretical advances, biological sex and sociological gender continue to be conflated in empirical research. In this paper we argue that sex and gender are not necessarily coincidental and that gender roles and gender role orientations may cross‐cut sex. We draw upon a recent tradition of research on gender role orientation in psychology which assesses the level of ‘bmasculinity’ and ‘femininity’ in an individual's self‐concept through identification with traditionally ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ characteristics. Considering a range of health measures we conclude that the sex (male‐female) differences that are traditionally found in research on gender and health may mask an association of ‘femininity’ with relatively poor health and ‘masculinity’ with relatively good health in both men and women.

Students' Perceptions of Socialisation and Gender Role in Japan and Germany

The present study investigates differences in students' perceptions of socialisation and gender roles in Japan and the Federal Republic of Germany. N = 64 male and 111 female Japanese and N = 61 male and 59 female German students completed paper-and-pencil tests. Group comparisons showed significant differences with respect to perceptions of socialisation and gender-role orientation. Japanese adolescents reported more parental acceptance and control than German adolescents. Japanese mothers were seen as more and German mothers were seen as less controlling than respective fathers whereas at the same time mothers in both countries were seen as more supportive than fathers. Furthermore, Japanese students had more "traditional" gender-role orientations than German adolescents. These results are interpreted on the basis of culture-specific values underlying socialisation and the organisation of interpersonal relations.

Couples' Career Orientation, Gender Role Orientation, and Perceived Equity as Determinants of Marital Power

This study investigates the influence of resource exchanges and of gender role on marital power by comparing dual-career and single-career couples on these variables. On the basis of social exchange theory the 2 types of couples with their differing resource exchange patterns were predicted to differ in marital power. Wives of differing gender role orientations were also predicted to differ in marital power. Results indicated that the 2 types of couples did not differ in perceived power nor in self-reported strategies for influencing spouses. During a conflict task however dual-career partners made significantly more attempts to influence their partners than did single-career partners. The best predictor of influence attempts was found to be the partners influence attempts. While single-career wives perceived themselves as more feminine gender role orientation did not affect marital power. Both types of couples demonstrated an ideology of general equality in marriage although resource exchanges differed by gender rather than by career orientation. Factors unique to each couple were seen as relevant to both resource exchanges and marital power interactions. (authors)

Development of the `Romantic Beliefs Scale' and Examination of the Effects of Gender and Gender-Role Orientation

Through a program of research, a scale was developed to measure beliefs that have been identified in the literature as constituting an ideology of romanticism. The final scale items were selected and subjected to several reliability and validity tests in a survey study conducted with 730 undergraduate students. The results provided strong support for the validity and reliability of the Romantic Beliefs Scale as well as for the four beliefs comprising the scale: Love Finds a Way, One and Only, Idealization, and Love at First Sight. Furthermore, romanticism was found to be related to gender and gender-role orientation. Men were generally more romantic than women, and femininity was a stronger predictor of romanticism than was masculinity. These findings are discussed as a function of both social structure and personal predispositions.

The role of gender and gender role similarity in readers' identification with story characters

This study tested the hypothesis that adult readers would identify with story characters who display a similar gender role orientation. Male and female readers rated their identification with male and female characters who acted in either a masculine or feminine manner in short story vignettes. The primary finding was an interaction between gender role of reader and gender role behavior of character: as predicted, androgynous and undifferentiated readers identified equally with both masculine and feminine characters, masculine readers identified more strongly with masculine characters than feminine characters, and feminine readers identified more strongly with feminine characters than masculine characters. Further, androgynous readers identified somewhat more strongly with both types of characters than undifferentiated readers. However, the predicted effect of gender similarity between reader and character did not exert a strong influence on the identification process. In addition, feminine subjects reported greater identification across all four stories than masculine and undifferentiated subjects. Finally, of three questionnaire measures of empathy tested, only Davis's (1983) Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Empathic Concern subscale) significantly predicted general level of identification; as expected, these scores were significantly correlated with femininity gender role scores.

Gender-Role Orientation of Adolescent Females

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of gender-role orientation on self-esteem and locus of control of female adolescents. A total of 87 junior high school females and 48 senior high school females completed the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, the Texas Social Behavior Inventory, and the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children. Gender-role orientation was related to self-esteem but not to locus of control. Adolescents classified as androgynous or masculine had higher self-esteem than adolescents classified as feminine and undifferentiated. Differentialpatterns of gender-role orientation effects were found for junior high school females when compared to senior high school females. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Male role and gender role conflict: Relations to help seeking in men.

Tested theory that adherence to the traditional male gender role and help-seeking attitudes and behaviors are related. Ss were 401 undergraduate men who completed measures of help-seeking attitudes and behaviors, attitudes toward the stereotypic male role, and gender role conflict factors (i.e., success/power/competition, restrictive emotionality, and restrictive affectionate behavior between men). Canonical analysis and regression indicated that traditional attitudes about the male role, concern about expressing emotions, and concern about expressing affection toward other men were each significantly related to negative attitudes toward seeking professional psychological assistance. Restrictive emotionality also significantly predicted decreased past helpseeking behavior and decreased likelihood of future help seeking. The implications of these results for theory, research, and counseling practice are discussed. There appear to be distinct gender differences in psychological help seeking. Two-thirds of all clients seeking psychological help are female. Further, one in three women, compared with one in seven men, seek services from a mental health professional at some point during their lifetime (Collier, 1982). Whereas much research and theoretical writing has focused on the psychological and sociological reasons for women's use of counseling services, a much smaller amount of literature has focused on the problems associated with male reluctance to use psychological services. One possible source of men's hesitance to use counseling services is adherence to the traditional male gender role, although this hypothesis has received very little attention in the help-seeking literature. This lack of attention is somewhat surprising, given that adherence to a role characterized by instrumentality, strength, aggressiveness, and emotional inexpressiveness (David & Brannon, 1976; O'Neti, 1981) seems intuitively antithetical to the behavior of seeking help for psychological concerns. The little research that is available has reported that people with a masculine gender role orientation are less likely to express an interest in seeking counseling than individuals with a feminine gender role'Orientation

The Influence of young adults’ sex, gender role orientation, ordinal position and time spent with infants on their knowledge of infant development

The major purpose of the present study was to identify some characteristics of non at‐risk prospective parents which may contribute to more accurate knowledge of infant development in four domains: motor, personal‐social, cognitive, and language. It is evident that at‐risk groups of parents have inappropriate expectations for developmental milestones. Results from the present study indicate that non at‐risk adults also share this characteristic. In the present study male subjects’ knowledge of personal‐social and cognitive behaviors was significantly worse than female subjects. In addition, feminine subjects were more accurate in their knowledge of infant development than masculine and undifferentiated subjects. Furthermore, first born children were more accurate about infant development than were middle‐ and laterborns. Finally, subjects who spent more than six hours per week interacting with children were more knowledgeable than less‐experienced subjects. These results are discussed with respect to func...

Age, gender-role orientation, and attitudes toward menstruation.

Students aged 18 to 23 yr. at a community college in suburban New Jersey and adults aged 30 to 39 yr. from suburban New Jersey completed the 1974 Bern Sex-role Inventory and Brooks-Gunn and Ruble's 1980 Menstrual Attitude Questionnaire. Significant age differences, sex differences and gender role differences in attitudes toward menstruation were found. Their implications are discussed.

Gender Identity and Sex Role Conflict Among Working Women and Men

Abstract Results of this study of 293 American working women and men showed that gender had a significant main effect on sex role conflict, with a significantly greater effect on women than on men. The combination effects of gender and sex role orientation had no significant impact on sex role conflict scores for the total sample and for the women subjects. But males with masculine sex role orientation scored higher in sex role conflict than those with feminine, undifferentiated, or androgynous gender identity.