Daily Hassles and African American Adolescent Females’ Psychological Functioning: Direct and Interactive Associations with Gender Role Orientation

Gender role orientation is associated with health-related quality of life differently among African-American, Hispanic, and White youth

“…Contrary to older research [49], more recent meta-analyses [16,35] generally found masculinity and gender role conflict to be negatively associated with health and health behaviors among adult men. Corresponding with previous mental health research [28], female African-American college students with greater masculine role orientations experienced reduced psychological functioning due to daily hassles, whereas feminine or androgynous role orientations buffered this relationship [7]. Certain aspects of femininity were associated with poorer body image among a diverse group of male and female college students [12].…”

“…Additionally, adults adhering to traditional masculine norms report fewer health promotion behaviors (e.g., exercising, seeking social support) and more health risk behaviors (e.g., substance abuse) [7,31]. Therefore, as GROs solidify across adolescence and health behaviors assert an influence on health status over time, encouraging healthy gender role beliefs in childhood will be important.…”

“…Scores were reversed such that higher scores indicated greater male and female GRO. In addition, androgyny was measured with the recommended formula [7,42]: (masculinity score ? femininity score) -(masculinity score -femininity score).…”

“…Gender differences emerge in adolescence for various aspects of health including depression and anxiety, and the engagement of risky behaviors [10,46]. Defined as one's orientation with gender-typed personality traits and characteristics, including masculine, feminine, or androgynous dimensions [2,7,42], gender roles become increasingly important in early adolescence. According to the gender intensification hypothesis, behavioral, attitudinal, and psychological differences between adolescent boys and girls increase and solidify with age, as a result of increased pressures to conform to traditional gender roles [17,23].…”

Gender roles, sociosexuality, and sexual behavior among US Black women

“…This unique socio-political history would suggest that African American women have used androgynous characteristics as both a coping and survival strategy. In fact, research has also shown that androgynous characteristics are associated with more positive psychological functioning of African American women (Cooper, Guthrie, Brown, & Metzger, 2011). Even though women may need to utilize more instrumental traits in the workplace, cultural and relational values may dictate that women must still maintain expressive traits within the household and relationship.…”