Psychometric Properties and Correlates of Precarious Manhood Beliefs in 62 Nations

• Published in: Journal of cross-cultural psychology Vol. 52; no. 3; pp. 231 - 258
• Main Authors: Jurek, Paweł, Kosakowska-Berezecka, Natasza, Besta, Tomasz, Bender, Michael, Becker, Maja, Timur Sevincer, A., Best, Deborah L., Włodarczyk, Anna, Zawisza, Magdalena, Żadkowska, Magdalena, Abuhamdeh, Sami, Akbaş, Gülçin, Ammirati, Soline, Anderson, Joel, Jamir Benzon R. Aruta, John, Ashraf, Mujeeba, Bakaitytė, Aistė, Bi, Chongzeng, Block, Katharina, Bosak, Janine, Casini, Annalisa, Cubela Adoric, Vera, Lemus, Soledad de, Egami, Sonoko, Etchezahar, Edgardo, Felix, Neto, Garcia-Sanchez, Efrain, Gavreliuc, Alin, Gomez, Ángel, Graf, Sylvie, Greijdanus, Hedy, Grigoryan, Ani, Grzymała-Moszczyńska, Joanna, Hale, Miriam-Linnea, Hoang Duc, Lam, Hutchings, Paul B., Karabati, Serdar, Kengyel, Gabriella, Ghazzawi, Rawan, Kirby, Teri A., Kozlowski, Desiree, Kulich, Clara, Thi Lac An, Nhan, Latu, Ioana, Anne Lauri, Mary, Musbau Lawal, Abiodun, Lindner, Jana, Maitner, Angela T., Makarova, Elena, Makashvili, Ana, Malayeri, Shera, Malik, Sadia, Manzi, Claudia, Martiny, Sarah E., Mihić, Vladimir, Moscatelli, Silvia, Bryan Moynihan, Andrew, Muller, Dominique, Narhetali, Erita, Nyúl, Boglárka, O’Connor, Emma C., Ochoa, Danielle P., Osborne, Randall, Giuseppina Pacilli, Maria, Palacio, Jorge, Patnaik, Snigdha, Pavlopoulos, Vassilis, Pérez de León, Pablo, Piterová, Ivana, Barreiros Porto, Juliana, Puzio, Angelica, Rentería Pérez, Erico, Rousseaux, Tiphaine, Ryan, Michelle K., Sainz, Mario, Samekin, Adil, Schindler, Simon, Shepherd, Debra, Sherbaji, Sara, Simão, Cláudia, Sobhie, Rosita, Souza, Lucille De, Sarter, Emma, Sulejmanović, Dijana, Tatsumi, Mariko, Jain Thakur, Suparna, Thi Mong Chi, Quang, Torre, Beatriz, Torres, Ana, Torres, Claudio V., Türkoğlu, Beril, Ungaretti, Joaquín, Van Laar, Colette, van der Noll, Jolanda, Vauclair, Christin-Melanie, Vohra, Neharika, Ward, Colleen, Zanello, Valeska, Ludmila Zapata-Calvente, Antonella, Žukauskienė, Rita
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.04.2021; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: adult; Ambivalence; ambivalence toward men; ambivalent sexism; Annan samhällsvetenskap; Beliefs; Cognitive science; Equality; female; Gender equity; Gender inequality; Gender role attitudes; Gender roles; Gender Studies; Genusstudier; human; Human development; Humanities and Social Sciences; ideology; Insecure; major clinical study; male; Manhood; Other Social Sciences; precarious manhood beliefs; Psychology; Psychology (excluding Applied Psychology); psychometric isomorphism; Psykologi; Psykologi (exklusive tillämpad psykologi); Quantitative psychology; Samhällsvetenskap; sex role; Sexism; Social Sciences; Social status; theoretical study; Womanhood; Women; ambivalent sexism; psychometric isomorphism; ambivalence toward men; precarious manhood beliefs
• ISSN: 0022-0221; 1552-5422; 1552-5422
• DOI: 10.1177/0022022121997997

Precarious manhood beliefs portray manhood, relative to womanhood, as a social status that is hard to earn, easy to lose, and proven via public action. Here, we present cross-cultural data on a brief measure of precarious manhood beliefs (the Precarious Manhood Beliefs scale [PMB]) that covaries meaningfully with other cross-culturally validated gender ideologies and with country-level indices of gender equality and human development. Using data from university samples in 62 countries across 13 world regions (N = 33,417), we demonstrate: (1) the psychometric isomorphism of the PMB (i.e., its comparability in meaning and statistical properties across the individual and country levels); (2) the PMB’s distinctness from, and associations with, ambivalent sexism and ambivalence toward men; and (3) associations of the PMB with nation-level gender equality and human development. Findings are discussed in terms of their statistical and theoretical implications for understanding widely-held beliefs about the precariousness of the male gender role.