Gender Role Identity and Stress in African American Women

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

“…Additionally, researchers have asserted that, due to distinct socio-historical experiences that have shaped gender roles in the African American community, the socialization of African American females emphasizes androgynous characteristics (e.g., integration of both masculine and feminine characteristics; Corneille et al 2005;Binion 1990;Harris 1993;Harris 1996;Molloy and Herzberger 1998). Further, an androgynous orientation has been associated with greater psychological functioning among adult and adolescent populations of African American females (Buckley and Carter 2005;Littlefield 2003). …”

“…Among the small number of studies with African American adolescent female samples, there is some suggestion that a greater feminine role orientation is associated with positive adolescent adjustment (e.g., happiness and satisfaction) (Buckley and Carter 2005). Investigations with adult samples also support this relationship (Littlefield 2003). Still, studies with African American females have indicated that a greater feminine role orientation is associated with negative psychological outcomes (e.g., Napholz 1994).…”

Masculine Ideology, Norms, and HIV Prevention Among Young Black Men

“…Traditional masculine ideology (TMI) was proposed by Thompson and Pleck (1995) as a term to characterize traditional attitudes toward men, their expected roles, and what they should and should not do (Ehrhardt & Wasserheit, 1991; Littlefield, 2003; Nguyen, Clark, Hood, Corneille, Fitzgerald, & Belgrave, 2010; Sanchez et al, 2009). TMI in the United States is based on subjective and long-held beliefs, and researchers have offered several definitions.…”

A Typology: Older Women and Gender Role Identity

“…Gender role identity is a commonly studied concept in research related to stress experienced by women, including their social psychological stability, self respect and depression. The degree of stress varies according to the gender role identity type and is one of the factors that affect women's social and psychological well-being (Littlefield, 2003). The most influential factor of older women's self-respect is neither financial situation nor health, but one of gender role identity (Lee & Lee, 2001).…”

“…Bem's theory claims that the ideal model of gender role is one in which masculine and feminine characters coexist (Kim, 2000;Lee, 2006;Littlefield, 2003). A limitation of such an instrument based on this model emphasizes the ideal view of masculine and feminine and thus have a limited view of the many different aspects that can exist in one individual., An alternative method is needed that could categorize the gender role identity into masculine, feminine, bipolar and to be able to include primitive identity with confused gender role.…”