Gender role conflict scale: validation for a sample of gay men and lesbian women.

This study tested the oblique four-factor model of the Gender Role Conflict Scale for a sample of gay men and lesbian women residing in the United States. 400 gay men and 292 lesbian women recruited from university and college gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender LISTSERVs participated. The internal consistency reliability of the Gender Role Conflict Scale scores was high, but low means on the expressive dimension of gender role conflict were noted. The results of two separate sets of confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the four-factor model's fit to the data could be enhanced for both groups by applying item parceling to lower the number of indicators per factor, suggesting that the actual structural validity of the Gender Role Conflict Scale may be better than suggested by the reported fit indices.

Gender-role conflict and gender-role orientation in a sample of gay men.

This exploratory study was designed to examine the relationship between gender role dimensions derived from the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) and the 4 dimensions of gender role conflict represented on the Gender Role Conflict Scale (GRCS) using a sample (N = 400) composed of exclusively gay men. Results from regression of 3 BSRI scores (femininity, social masculinity, personal masculinity) on the 4 subscale scores of the GRCS indicated that gender role conflict was most strongly and positively associated with the negative aspect of masculinity (social masculinity), accounting for about 11% of variability in social masculinity scores. In particular, the success-power-competition dimension of the GRCS was the major predictor of social masculinity in gay men. Gender role conflict was also strongly but negatively associated with femininity, accounting for approximately 10% of the variance in femininity scores among the men in the sample. Implications and recommendations for further studies are discussed.