Stanley W. Sadava

The Male Role, Alcohol Use, and Alcohol Problems: A Structural Modeling Examination in Adult Women and Men.

Most research on sex differences in alcohol involvement suggests that drinking is a component of the male gender role, but the impact of specific male role factors on alcohol involvement has not yet been studied. The authors used structural modeling to examine the relationships among 3 male role variables (agency, traditional male role attitudes, and masculine gender role stress), alcohol consumption, and alcohol-related problems in a sample of women and men. To determine whether sex moderates this relationship, models were computed separately for men and women. For men, traditional attitudes led to more alcohol consumption, whereas agentic traits protected them from experiencing alcohol-related problems, and experiencing masculine gender role stress was a risk factor for these problems. Male role variables were unrelated to womens alcohol consumption, but women who believed more in the traditional role of men suffered from more alcohol-related problems. Discussion centers on the contribution of components of the male role on alcohol outcomes as well as the different implications for men and women.

Dimensions of the Male Gender Role: A Confirmatory Analysis in Men and Women

As researchers become more interested instudying the influences of the male gender role onpeoples physical and psychological well-being, measuresof several male role domains have been created,including psychological agency, traditional attitudestowards men, and masculine gender role stress (MGRS).These measures of the male gender role, however,typically have been constructed and validated using only samples of men. This restriction introducesquestions about the reliability and validity of theseinstruments in samples of women, leading to problemswhen generalizing findings to this group. The present study addressed these issues by examining thefactor structure, factor correlations, and latent meansof these three male role measures for a sample of mostlyCaucasian men and women, using multiple group confirmatory factor analytic techniques.Results showed only the dimensionality of the agenticpersonality traits differed significantly for men andwomen. The interrelationships among and latent means of agency, attitudes, and MGRS differed by sex.These findings demonstrate the utility of the currentconceptualization of sex and gender; in other words,that gender is not totally determined by sexand that men and women internalize many of the samegender cues, but differentially endorse them to varyingdegrees.

Positive Affect, Negative Affect, Stress, and Social Support as Mediators of the Forgiveness-Health Relationship

ABSTRACT Structural equation modeling was used to test a model in which positive affect, negative affect, perceived stress, and social support were hypothesized to mediate the relationship between forgiveness and mental and physical health. Six hundred and twenty-three undergraduates completed a battery of self-report measures. Results of the analyses indicated that the forgiveness-health relation was mediated by positive affect, negative affect, stress, and the interrelationship between negative affect and stress. There was limited support for social support and the interrelationship between positive affect and social support as mediators. The results suggested that the relationship between forgiveness and health is mediated rather than direct. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Employment status and health in young adults : Economic and behavioural mediators?

In a sample of young Canadian adults, questionnaire data indicated that both unemployment and selfreported underemployment represent health risks, as defined by subjectively rated health, experienced symptoms and illness measures. While health behaviours, including substance use, diet and exercise, medical compliance and unsafe driving practices contributed independently to health outcomes, they did not explain the linkage between employment status and health. Household income, but not personal income, predicted health and mediated this relationship only in the case of symptoms. The results are discussed in terms of an expanded understanding of the socioeconomic gradient in health.

Investigating a four-pathway model of adult attachment orientation and health

We tested a model, derived from attachment theory, linking adult attachment orientation to health through four hypothesized intervening paths: affect, stress, social support, and health-risk behavior. Questionnaires were administered to 623 university students and 219 addiction treatment clients. In both samples, attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety dimensions were indirectly, rather than directly, related to lower subjective ratings of health. In both samples, data were consistent with the affect and stress pathways linking attachment to health. Results for the social support and health-risk behavior pathways were less robust. Results were consistent for male and female respondents. Findings are discussed in terms of attachment theory and the affect regulation processes linking attachment and health. Implications are considered, along with directions for future research.

Mediating the Relationship between Masculine Gender Role Stress and Work Satisfaction: The Influence of Coping Strategies

Masculine gender role stress (MGRS) is a theoretical construct developed by Eisler and Skidmore (1987) to help understand individual differences in the adverse ways men respond to the rigid nature of the male gender role. The theory is founded on two basic tenets: (a) that men will experience stress if they feel they are not meeting society’s expectations for men and how masculine men should be; and (b) that men will experience stress if their situation forces them to act in ways typically considered to be “feminine.” The reasoning behind these two assumptions lies in the research literature detailing people’s conceptions of the male gender role and their reactions to men’s deviations from these role prescriptions. Research shows that men are perceived mostly in a stereotypically masculine manner, and are attributed significantly fewer cross-gender traits than those ascribed to women (Deaux, Winton, Crowley, & Lewis, 1985; Helgeson, 1994; Hort, Fagot, & Leinbach, 1990). In addition, when researchers study the subcategories of men (e.g., businessman, family man, macho man, athlete, ladies man), there tend to be few differences in the gender stereotypes attributed to each of the various groups, even though people continue to believe in the existence of these subcategories (Edwards, 1992; England, 1992). This finding is at odds with research examining subcategories of women which finds substantial variability in the attribution of gender stereotypic traits across subcategories of women (see also Deaux & Lewis, 1984; Eagly & Steffen. 1984; England, 1988). Thus, because of the narrowness of the male stereotype, men who find themselves not meeting its rigid role prescriptions may feel less masculine.