Male Gender Role Conflict Research Articles

Male gender role conflict: Psychometric issues and relations to psychological distress.

Two distinct deficits in research on male gender role conflict are addressed: (a) lack of psychometric information and (b) lack of research involving clinical samples. First, using 1,043 men across three samples, the psychometric properties of the Gender Role Conflict Scale (GRCS) were examined through confirmatory factor analyses, internal consistency estimation, and construct validation. Next, using 130 male university counseling center clients across two samples, the relation between gender role conflict and psychological distress was examined. The GRCS demonstrated good internal consistency and was best modeled as 4 intercorrelated factors, as originally proposed by J. M. O'Neil, B. Helms, R. Gable, L. David, and L. Wrightsman (1986). Construct validity was supported through correlations with attitudes about masculinity, fear of intimacy, and social desirability in expected directions. However, reservations about the Conflicts Between Work and Family Relations subscale are noted. Male gender role conflict was significantly related to psychological distress, with the Restrictive Emotionality subscale being the best predictor of distress level. Implications for mental health practice and future research are discussed

Male gender role conflict: Psychometric issues and relations to psychological distress.

Male gender role conflict: Psychometric issues and relations to psychological distress.

Gender role conflict and family environment as predictors of men's marital satisfaction.

This study investigated the relationship between male gender role conflict, family environment, and marital satisfaction. Results indicate that restrictive emotionality, conflicts between work or school and family relations, and family cohesion are related to marital satisfaction.

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

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

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