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Sex-role orientation and psychological well-being: Two meta-analyses

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Abstract

Research on the relationship between sex-role orientation and psychological well-being has been guided by one of three models. The traditional congruence model holds that psychological well-being will be fostered only when one's sex-role orientation is congruent with one's gender; the androgyny model proposes that well-being will be maximized when one's sex-role orientation incorporates a high degree of both masculinity and femininity regardless of one's gender; the masculinity model posits that well-being is a function of the extent to which one has a masculine sex-role orientation. The adequacy of these three models was tested by means of a meta-analysis of 32 studies of the relationship between sex-role orientation and depression and general adjustment. The results of the meta-analysis provided the best support for the masculinity model, with masculinity having a moderately strong relationship to both high adjustment and lack of depression and with femininity having only a small relationship to adjustment and no relationship to depression. No support was found for the congruence model.

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  1. Department of Psychological Science, Ball State University, 47306, Muncie, Indiana

    Bernard E. Whitley Jr.

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The author would like to express his appreciation to Sanford Golin and Paul Sweeney for their helpful comments on early drafts of this article.

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Whitley, B.E. Sex-role orientation and psychological well-being: Two meta-analyses. Sex Roles 12, 207–225 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00288048

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