Children's toys. Thus, context-level gender discrepancy strain should have stronger effects for women higher in FGRS, and may have null effects for women lower in FGRS. Review of a program of research. Stereotypes and Gender Roles. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 1(1), 30. https://doi.org/10.1037/1524-9220.1.1.30, Eisler, R. M., & Skidmore, J. R. (1987). Sociologist Erving Goffman. Moreover, the significant daily felt-femininity x FGRS interaction illustrated that the within-person links between felt-femininity and self-esteem were greater for women higher in FGRS. Higher levels of MGRS are associated with a range of negative outcomes, such as anger, risky health behaviors, and aggression toward intimate partners (Eisler et al., 1988, 2000; Franchina et al., 2001; Moore et al., 2008). ),A new psychology of men(pp. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(3), 629. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.3.629, Rudman, L. A., & Fairchild, K. (2004). For instance, replicating the results found in the current studies in samples of younger adolescents (1218) could shed light on how decreases in felt-femininity undermine womens self-esteem from a young age and how these outcomes affect the development of gender identities. Masculine gender role stress and intimate abuse: Effects of masculine gender relevance of dating situations and female threat on mens attributions and affective responses. (See the Online Supplement for details on the 24 items retained, and the 15 items removed for these studies). The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial competing interests to disclose. The developmental social psychology of gender. Taken together, our results highlight the critical importance of taking a matched person x context perspective to assess the interaction between person-level and context-level gender role discrepancy strain. Estimates of sensitivity using intensive longitudinal methods (Bolger & Laurenceau, 2013) suggest that 165 participants assessed at 7 time points provides adequate statistical power to detect small effects (r=.10). This research was funded by the University of Auckland Postgraduate Research Student Support funds awarded to Auguste Harrington. We conducted multilevel analyses to test the effects of FGRS (person-level discrepancy strain), the within-person associations of felt-femininity (context-level discrepancy strain), and the interaction between FGRS and felt-femininity (person x context discrepancy strain) on self-esteem. A boy who is teased at school because he enjoys. Recent findings have suggested that increased gender role discrepancy stress in men is associated with psychological, physical, and sexual intimate partner violence (Reidy et al., 2014); high risk sexual behavior and risk for contracting STIs (Reidy et al., 2016); binge drinking (Yang et al., 2019); psychosocial maladjustment (Reidy et al., 2018. The negative effects of gender role strain are mental and physical health problems for the individ-ual and within relationships (O'Neil, 2008, 2013; Pleck, 1995). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2005.00169.x, Smiler, A. P. (2004). Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(5), 623636. Study 2 was designed to replicate Study 1 but, rather than employing daily assessments, we examined whether weekly drops in felt-femininity associated with lower weekly self-esteem, particularly for women higher in FGRS. To do so, we assess drops in feeling of femininity, which provides a specific, unambiguous measure of daily and weekly experiences of feminine discrepancy strain that could emerge from a broad array of contexts. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410605245, Efthim, P. W., Kenny, M. E., & Mahalik, J. R. (2001). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2011.10.008, Sanchez, D. T., & Crocker, J. When power shapes interpersonal behavior: Low relationship power predicts mens aggressive responses to low situational power. Men are generally expected to be strong, aggressive, and bold. The results of the current studies provided an extension of prior research by illustrating the value of examining the outcomes of womens experiences of feminine discrepancy strain within ecologically valid contexts that are likely to have meaningful implications for their lives. Guilford Press. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 2(1), 34. https://doi.org/10.1037/1524-9220.2.1.34, Gillespie, B. L., & Eisler, R. M. (1992). What is evident is that strain has some role, but that this role is contested. We included all data for transparency and to maximize statistical power, and because we did not have firm a priori expectations that the post-COVID semester would have weaker (minimize feminine discrepancy strain) or stronger (amplify strain) effects. Thus, mixed and null effects in tests of context-level effects (e.g., Kosakowska-Berezecka et al., 2016; Mori et al., 1987; Munsch & Willer, 2012) may emerge when such tests do not account for person-level propensity for discrepancy strain. For instance, feminine discrepancy strain may arise from the failure to embody feminine characteristics related to attractiveness, but the most prevalent outcomes of experiences of strain in this particular context are likely to be those that match the attractiveness-related domain, such as potentially increasing womens body dissatisfaction (Harrington & Overall, 2021) and/or risk of eating disorders (Martz et al., 1995; Mussap, 2007). Psychology of Women Quarterly, 29(1), 6377. Even fewer studies have directly examined the effects of womens experiences of context-level feminine gender role discrepancy strain, and these studies have produced inconsistent results. (2012). In Study 1, we assessed the associations between womens FGRS, within-person variation in felt-femininity, and self-esteem across 10days. Elizabeth Hopper Updated on February 13, 2020 If you've ever felt stressed trying to meet the obligations of a social role, you might have experienced what sociologists call role strain . For consistency, when duplicate responses were identified, the second response was deleted, and the first response was retained. The myth of masculinity. The role of gender identity threat in perceptions of date rape and sexual coercion. Thirty years after the discovery of gender: Psychological concepts and measures of masculinity. In Study 2, participants completed a more detailed assessment of MGRS than the abbreviated MGRS scale used in Study 1 which consisted of 30 of the original 40 items (Eisler & Skidmore, 1987). Violence Against Women, 18(10), 11251146. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87(2), 157. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.87.2.157, Rudman, L. A., & Glick, P. (2001). The Femininity Ideology Scale (FIS): Dimensions and its relationship to anxiety and feminine gender role stress. However, 80 participants sampled in 2020 experienced a short lockdown (18days) during the data collection period. Directly assessing feelings of femininity captures the core ingredient of gender role discrepancy straindecreases in feelings of femininity. For example, experiencing lower power in intimate relationships is associated with drops in mens feelings of masculinity, which in turn predicts greater aggressive behavior towards intimate partners (Overall et al., 2016). The list of female gender roles includes how we play as children. Critically, the daily and weekly links between womens feelings of femininity and self-esteem and were not affected by their general tendency to find challenging situations of all types stressful (i.e., not feminine-role specific; captured by MGRS). https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122412451728, Article We did not collect participants sexual orientation in Study 1. Approximately half of the participants were single (44.4%, n=73), with the remainder involved in romantic relationships either dating (45.5%, n=75), cohabiting (6.6%, n=11), or married (3.5%, n=6). https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.2010.0040, Eagly, A. H., Nater, C., Miller, D. I., Kaufmann, M., & Sczesny, S. (2020). The gender role strain paradigm. - APA PsycNet Indeed, a central prediction of MGRS theory is that men higher in MGRS should be most likely to exhibit negative outcomes when they feel they are failing to live up to gender role expectations (Eisler & Skidmore, 1987). Open Access funding enabled and organized by CAUL and its Member Institutions. After completing measures of FGRS, undergraduate women reported their feelings of femininity and self-esteem each day for 10days (Study 1, N=207, 1,881 daily records) or each week for 7weeks (Study 2, N=165, 1,127 weekly records). The main and interaction effects of felt-femininity and FGRS did not significantly differ across data collected in 2019 versus 2020 (For more detailed information, see the Online Supplement). Correspondence to Similarly, strain can tie an individual more tightly to a political leader, making them "more willing to violently fight people who this leader had identified as threats" (Kunst and Obaidi Citation 2020, 57). Sociology defines a role as the expected behavior of a person who is occupying a position or status. https://doi.org/10.1080/03630242.2014.996723, Robins, R. W., & Trzesniewski, K. H. (2005). This face-valid assessment of felt-femininity is similar to prior assessments of masculine discrepancy strain during daily life (drops in felt-masculinity), which revealed the same links with aggressive behavior as those shown from experimental manipulations of context-level masculine discrepancy strain (i.e., threats to masculinity; Overall et al., 2016). Nonetheless, assessing and identifying the array of routine situations that could generate feminine gender role discrepancy strain would advance understanding regarding how femininity is shaped in womens lives, and whether the relative impact and specific outcomes of these strain situations vary based on differences in womens propensity for strain and investment in facets of femininity (Witt & Wood, 2010; Wood & Eagly, 2009). Abstract Negative -self and -others core schemas have been implicated in the development and maintenance of psychotic experiences. Future research could further explore how the findings we observed intersect with the importance of ones female identity. Role Strain vs. Role Conflict in Sociology | Examples & Differences Prior use of this scale in multiple studies has revealed similar means, standard deviations, and internal reliability to previous MGRS assessments (Harrington et al., 2021). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53(4), 693. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.53.4.693, Munsch, C. L., & Willer, R. (2012). https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.2001.tb01990.x, Egan, S. K., & Perry, D. G. (2001). Prior examinations have shown that both person-level and context-level gender role discrepancy strain lead to negative outcomes, such as aggression, depressed mood, and restricted eating (e.g., Bosson et al., 2012; Eisler & Skidmore, 1987; Gillespie & Eisler, 1992; Mori et al., 1987). maximalists What is the best way to describe the following study: A scientist wants to better understand the relationship between gender-role strain and physical health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-007-9258-5, Mahalik, J. R., Locke, B. D., Ludlow, L. H., Diemer, M. A., Scott, R. P., Gottfried, M., & Freitas, G. (2003). The current research provides the first test of naturally occurring context-level feminine gender role discrepancy strain that emerges in womens daily and weekly lives. These measures produced comparable descriptive statistics and reliabilities as the daily assessments in Study 1 (see Table 1). ),The psychology of men and masculinities (pp. Regardless of method, isolating the particular aspects and situations that lead to feminine gender role discrepancy will also advance understanding of the potential harmful outcomes women may experience when they feel less feminine. 022559). In addition to person-level associations, the effects of context-level gender role discrepancy strain on harmful outcomes have been illustrated by placing men in gender role discrepant contexts in order to undermine their feelings of masculinity. Gender stereotypes have changed: A cross-temporal meta-analysis of US public opinion polls from 1946 to 2018. Strain theory, resilience, and far-right extremism: the impact of Guilford Press. Putting gender into context: An interactive model of gender-related behavior. The original 39-item FGRS scale has established internal consistency (s=.73 to .83) and testretest reliability (r=.82; Gillespie & Eisler, 1992). Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 59(6), 443449. All predictor variables were entered simultaneously. By person-centering, the effect of felt-femininity represents daily variations in feelings of femininity from each persons typical levels, and thus tests whether within-person changes in daily felt-femininity predict within-person changes in self-esteem (person-centering is standard practice in multi-level modelling; see Bolger & Laurenceau, 2013). See the Online Supplement for more detail on the foundation for this assessment. Other research has examined the effects of naturally-occurring gender role discrepant situations. In M. Leary & R. Hoyle (Eds. For example, men may act in stereotypically masculine behaviors, such as aggression, in an attempt to reaffirm . Pleck, J. H. (1981). Sex Roles, 27(11), 573607. In particular, we demonstrated that person-level propensity for experiencing discrepancy strain (i.e., FGRS) predicted the greatest decreases in self-esteem when women encountered context-level gender role discrepant situations (i.e., lower felt-femininity). Yet, our results also highlight the critical importance of taking a person x context perspective to assess the interaction between person-level and context-level gender role discrepancy strain. American Psychological Association. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing FGRS and MGRS, then reported on their feelings of femininity and self-esteem at the end of each day for 10days. Click the card to flip Intrarole conflict- women are emotional and express feelings but also need to be sensitive to needs of other Interrole conflict- role as student, daughter etc conflicting with role of gender Click the card to flip 1 / 69 Feminist scholarship on the psychology of women and gender developed a perspective that viewed gender roles as socially constructed by gender ideologies, rooted in power differences between men and women (Deaux, 1984; Gergen, 1985; Unger, 1979). As in prior use of the FGRS scale, items were averaged to create an overall score of FGRS, with higher scores representing greater FGRS. This study examined the relationships between racial identity attitudes and gender role conflict in a sample of 95 African American men ages 23-80 years old. of Male Gender Role Strain discussed in the article (provide examples) The Discrepancy Strain - this is thought to occur when a man doesn't live up to his own ideal gender norm or gender role. Gender Roles: What Are They? - WebMD Gender and General Strain Theory: An Examination of the Role of Internal reliability was comparable to the original paper outlining development of the full scale (=.81). Participants completed the 1981 Black Racial Identity Attitude Scale by Parham and Helms and the 1986 Gender Role Conflict Scale by O'Neil, Helms, Gable, David, and Wrightsman. Masculine gender role discrepancy strain occurs when men fail to live up to expectations of traditional masculinity, such as admitting feelings (failing to be tough), letting someone else take control (failing to be assertive and dominant), and having to ask for help (failing to be agentic and independent; Eisler & Skidmore, 1987). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(1), 63. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.1.63, Mussap, A. J. After signing up, participants were provided detailed information about the study and gave informed consent. Moreover, returning to one of the primary contributions of the current study, such investigations are important given that the current results show FGRS and drops in felt-femininity have important consequences for womens wellbeing. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-006-9120-1, Witt, M. G., & Wood, W. (2010). Moreover, the significant weekly feelings of femininity x FGRS interaction illustrated that the within-person links between felt-femininity and self-esteem were greater for women higher in FGRS. Figure1 (left side) displays this predicted person x context interaction. One egalitarianism or several? This prior research has demonstrated that person-level and context-level gender role discrepancy strain have harmful outcomes for men in isolation. The Counseling Psychologist, 36(3), 358445. Participants first reported the date of each entry, which was checked against the software-logged date and time to assess compliance. We calculated the simple effects of both person-level (FGRS) and context-level (felt-femininity) discrepancy strain by calculating the effects of low (-1 SD) versus high (+1 SD) levels of each variable. American Psychologist, 75(3), 301. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000494, Eagly, A. H., & Wood, W. (1991). https://doi.org/10.1037/1524-9220.9.2.82, Mori, D., Chaiken, S., & Pliner, P. (1987). Responses collected in early 2020 occurred immediately prior to the emergence of COVID-19 in the community, and before the country went into a nationwide lockdown. Our primary approach was to select 5 items from each of the 5 subscales. Boys and men experience gender role strain when they (a) deviate from or violate gender role norms of masculinity, (b) try to meet or fail to That is, although we observed a negative association between MGRS and self-esteem in Study 2, as anticipated, MGRS did not further moderate the link between womens experiences of feminine gender role discrepancy (lower felt-femininity) and daily/weekly self-esteem. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Moreover, given that women likely differ in their investment in different facets of femininity (Witt & Wood, 2010; Wood & Eagly, 2009), relative levels of strain and thus felt-femininity may vary across different situations for different women (Pleck, 1995). Development of the conformity to masculine norms inventory. Consistent with calls for this type of contextual application to further understanding of gender role strain (Deaux & Major, 1987; Eckes & Trautner, 2012; Levant & Powell, 2017; ONeil, 2008; Smiler, 2004; Whorley & Addis, 2006), this rare person x context application illustrates that person-level gender role strain is most likely to predict negative outcomes in relevant gender role discrepant situations (in this case, low relationship power), and that context-level strain will predict negative outcomes most strongly for people who have a greater sensitivity to gender role strain (i.e., for those high but not low in MGRS). Students were presented with a range of studies to complete each semester, and thus this study was one of many that students could select. The aim of the current studies was to apply a person x context perspective to test whether person-level discrepancy strain (FGRS) and context-level discrepancy strain interacted to predict self-relevant negative outcomes. Second, person-level and context-level gender role discrepancy strain are typically examined separately, with investigations focusing on the effects of either person-level differences in gender role stress (e.g., Moore et al., 2008) or experimental manipulations of gender role discrepant contexts (e.g., Bosson et al., 2012). Role Conflict Examples 1. Focusing on the context-level effects of drops in femininity across women low versus high in FGRS, women experienced lower self-esteem on days they felt lower femininity, but this association was strongest for women higher in FGRS (dashed line: B=.279, t=8.745, 95% CI [.216, .342], p<.001) compared to women lower in FGRS (solid line: B=.176, t=6.731, 95% CI [.125, .227], p<.001). The same scale used in Study 1 assessed FGRS and produced comparable descriptive statistics and reliabilities (see Table 1). The gender role strain paradigm (GRSP) has been called the "standard model" for research in the psychology of men and masculinities (see Foreword, the present volume). Participants rated each item according to how stressful they would find each situation to be if they were in that situation (1=not at all stressful, 7=extremely stressful). Chapter 1 Describe a personal experience of intrarole or interrole conflict with respect to gender? We propose three important gaps in this body of work that limit understanding of how experiences of gender role discrepancy strain likely shape important outcomes. PubMed Central The invalidity of disclaimers about the effects of social feedback on self-esteem. Women face social pressures to conform to the expectations of traditional feminine gender roles. Gender Role Strain Paradigm | SpringerLink https://doi.org/10.1177/01454455870112001, Eisler, R. M., Skidmore, J. R., & Ward, C. H. (1988). Approval was obtained from the University of Auckland Human Participants Ethics Committee (ref no. Measures Package, 61(52), 18. https://doi.org/10.1037/t01038-000, Rudman, L. A. Rosenberg self-esteem scale (RSE). https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483384269.n240, Raag, T., & Rackliff, C. L. (1998). Three items adapted from the Rosenberg (1965) Self-Esteem Scale, and similar to prior daily assessments (e.g., Murray et al., 2003), measured daily levels of self-esteem. Sex Roles, 55(9), 649658. The current studies address three important gaps in the gender role discrepancy literature by (1) focusing on feminine gender role discrepancy strain rather than the more oft-studied masculine gender role discrepancy strain, (2) examining how person-level and context-level discrepancy strain interact to predict important outcomes, and (3) expanding a focus on experimental manipulations of context-level discrepancy strain to the experience and outcomes of strain in daily and weekly life. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 17(3), 274. https://doi.org/10.1037/men0000016, Leary, M. R., Gallagher, B., Fors, E., Buttermore, N., Baldwin, E., Kennedy, K., & Mills, A. Estimates of sensitivity using intensive longitudinal methods (Bolger & Laurenceau, 2013) indicate that the final sample of 207 participants assessed at 10 time points provides adequate statistical power to detect small effects (r=.10). To be included in the sample, participants had to have completed at least 5 usable weekly entries. Moreover, single-item assessments are common in daily sampling studies to reduce participant burden, and are appropriate, and even preferable, when the construct being measured is specific and unambiguous (see Allen et al., 2022). The current studies relied on a single face-valid item assessing womens felt-femininity. Gender role-related consequences can show up in many ways for example, often, little girls are deprived of going to school due to their gender. Stress and Health: Journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress, 23(5), 343348. Both higher FGRS and within-person decreases in daily/weekly felt-femininity were associated with lower self-esteem, but higher FGRS combined with daily/weekly decreases in felt-femininity predicted the lowest self-esteem (a person x context interaction). The abbreviated MGRS scale is commonly used and has established reliability and validity (McDermott et al., 2017; Swartout et al., 2015). The Person x Context Interaction Between FGRS and Womens Daily (Study 1) and Weekly (Study 2) Feelings of Femininity Predicting Self-Esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(6), 1325. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012453, Vescio, T. K., Schermerhorn, N. E., Gallegos, J. M., & Laubach, M. L. (2021). The average days between questionnaires was 7.11days (SD=1.80). Abstract Women are likely to experience multiple roles, often several at the same time, for which different sets of responsibilities are designated. Data collection and material preparation [Auguste Harrington, Nickola Overall], study conception [Auguste Harrington], data analysis [Auguste Harrington, Nickola Overall], manuscript writing [Auguste Harrington], feedback on writing and revising manuscript [Nickola Overall, Jessica Maxwell]. Social pressures to adhere to traditional feminine roles may place some women at risk of experiencing gender role discrepancy strain, when they behave, think, or feel in ways discrepant from feminine gender role expectations. As feminine gender role stress measures the degree to which women find feminine gender role discrepant contexts stressful, FGRS provides a direct and concrete assessment of womens propensity for strain in feminine gender role discrepant contexts (person-level feminine gender role discrepancy strain). The self-reported ethnicity of our participants was as follows: New Zealand (NZ) European 38.0% (n=79), NZ Mori 3.9% (n=8), Asian 31.6% (n=66), Indian 8.9% (n=18), non-NZ European 5.9% (n=12), Pacific Nations 3.9% (n=8), Middle Eastern 2.6% (n=5), and Other 5.3% (n=11). Self-esteem development across the lifespan. This lack of moderation supports our theorizing that women report lower self-esteem specifically when there is a match between a person-level predisposition to feminine discrepancy strain (FGRS) and context-level experience of feminine gender role discrepancy (lower felt-femininity). Masculine gender role stress, low relationship power, and aggression toward intimate partners. PubMed The MGRS scale (Eisler & Skidmore, 1987) assesses individual differences in mens propensity to experience strain in such gender role discrepant contexts, including contexts that involve (1) physical inadequacy, (2) emotional expressiveness, (3) subordination to women, (4) intellectual inferiority, and (5) performance failure. Role strain is actually very common, as we often find ourselves trying to fulfill multiple roles that call for different sets of behaviors simultaneously. Sex Roles 87, 3551 (2022). The gender role strain paradigm. What Is Role Strain? Participants are rated on gender-role strain using a reputable scale and then given a health questionnaire every other month for a year. PDF Psychology of Men & Masculinities - American Psychological Association